I. THESE are the words which Mosheh spake with all Israel
beyond the Jordan, reproving them because they had sinned in the wilderness,
and had provoked (the Lord) to anger on the plains over against the Sea
of Suph, in Pharan, where they scorned the manna; and in Hazeroth, where
they provoked to anger on account of flesh, and because they had made the
golden calf.

It is
a journey of eleven days from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir unto Rekem
Giah.

And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh
month, in the first day of the month, Mosheh spake with the sons of Israel
according to all that the Lord had commanded him for them. After he had
slain Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and Og, king of
Mathnan, who dwelt at Ashtaroth in Edrehi; on this side Jordan in the land
of Moab began Mosheh to explain the doctrine of this law, saying:

The Lord our God spake with us at Horeb, saying : It is sufficient
for you to have dwelt at this mountain: turn, and proceed, and go unto
the mountain of the Amoraah, and to all its habitable places in the plains,
the mountain, the valleys, and in the south, and by the side of the sea;
the land of the Kenaanah and Lebanon, unto the river, the great river Phrat;
behold, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which
the Lord covenanted to your fathers, to Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jakob;
to give it to them, and to your children after them.

And I spake to you at that time, saying: I am not able to
bear you myself alone. The Lord your God hath multiplied you; and, behold,
you are this day as the stars of the heavens for multitude. The Lord God
of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless
you, as He hath said to you! How can I bear alone your labour, your business,
and your adjudgments? Provide (then) for yourselves prudent and sagacious
men of your tribes, and I will appoint them to be chiefs over you. And
you answered me, and said: The thing that thou hast spoken it is right
that we should do.

And I took the heads of your tribes, wise men and masters
of knowledge, and appointed them chiefs over you, captains of thousands,
of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and officers of your tribes. And
I charged your judges at that time, saying: Hear between your brethren,
and judge rightly between a man and his brother, or the sojourner. You
shall not have respect to persons in the judgment; you shall hear little
words (matters) as well as great; nor be afraid of the face of man, for
the judgment is of the Lord; and the matter that is too hard for you bring
to me, and I will hear it; and commanded you at that time all the things
that you should do.

And we departed from Horeb, and went through all that great
and fearful desert which you saw by the way of the mountain of the Amoraah,
as the Lord our God commanded us, and we came unto Rekem Giah. And I the
said: You are come to the mountain of the Amoraah, which the Lord our God
will give to us. See, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: arise,
possess (it), as the Lord the God of thy fathers hath bid thee; fear not,
nor be broken. And all of you came to me and said: We will send men before
us, to explore the land for us, and bring us word about the way to go up
to it, and to what cities we shall come. And the thing was good in my eyes,
and I took from you twelve men, one man for a tribe. And they turned and
went up to the mountain, and came to the brook of Ethkela, and explored
it. And they took in their hands some of the produce of the land and brought
to us, and returned us word, saying: The land which the Lord will give
us is good. But you were not willing to go up, but were rebellious against
the Word of the Lord your God, and murmured in your tents, and said: Because
the Lord hath hated us, He hath brought us from the land of Mizraim to
deliver us into the hand of the Amoraah to destroy us. To what shall we
go up? Our brethren have broken our heart, saying: The people are greater
and stronger than we; vast are the cities, and walled to the height of
heaven, and we saw there also the sons of the giants. But I said to you:
Be not broken (hearted), fear them not; the Word of the Lord, who leadeth
on before you, will fight for you, according to all that He did for you
in Mizraim in your sight; and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen that
the Lord thy God carrieth thee, as a man carrieth his child, in all the
way you have journeyed until your coming to this place. But in this thing
you did not believe in the Word of the Lord your God, who led on before
you in the way to prepare for you (each) place of encampment for your sojournings,
in the pillar of fire by night to show you in which way to go, and in the
pillar of the cloud by day. But the voice of your words was heard before
the Lord, and He was angry, and made oath, saying: If a man of the men
of this evil generation shall see the good land which I sware to your fathers,
save Kaleb bar Jephunneh. He shall see it, and I will give to him the land
on which he hath trodden, and unto his children, because he hath been upright
in the fear of the Lord. Also against me was there displeasure before the
Lord on your account, (He) saying: Thou too art not to go in thither; Jehoshua
bar Nun, who standeth before thee, he shall go in thither; strengthen him,
for he is to make Israel to inherit; but your little ones, who you said
would be for prey, your children, who today know not good and evil, they
shall enter therein, to them will I give it, and they shall possess it;
but you, turn you, and go into the wilderness by the Weedy Sea.

Then you answered, and said: We have sinned before the Lord;
we will go up and wage war according to all that the Lord our God commanded;
and you girded on every man his weapons of war, and began to go up to the
mountain. But the Lord said to me: Tell them, You shall not go up, neither
wage war; for My Shekinah is not among you, lest you be crushed before
your enemies. And I told you, but you hearkened not, but rebelled against
the Word of the Lord, and dared, and went up to the mountain; but the Amoraah
who dwelt in that mountain came out against you, and pursued you as bees
are dispersed, and smote you in Seir unto Hormah. And you returned, and
wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not receive your prayer, nor hearken
to your words; and you dwelt in Rekem many days, according to the days
that you abode.

II. And we turned, and journeyed to the wilderness by the
way of the Sea of Suph, as the Lord had told us; and we encompassed the
mountain of Seir many days. And the Lord spake to me, saying: You have
been about this mountain enough for you: turn you northward; and command
the people, saying: You are going through the coasts of your brethren,
the sons of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Take
great heed, quarrel not with them; for I will not give you of their land,
not so much as you may tread upon with the sole of the foot; for the inheritance
of Mount Seir I have given to Esau. You shall buy provision of them with
silver, that you may eat; and water, with silver, that you may drink; for
the Lord thy God bath blessed thee in all the works of thy hands; He bath
given thee sufficient for thy need in thy going about in this great wilderness;
these forty years the Word of the Lord thy God hath been thy helper, thou
hast not wanted any thing. And we passed by from our brethren, the sons
of Esau, who dwelt in Seir, by the way of the plain from Elath, and from
Ezion Geber; and turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

And the Lord said to me, Distress not the Moabaee, nor stir
thyself to make war with them; for I will not give thee any of their land
to inherit, for I have given Lechiath unto the children of Lot for an inheritance.
The Emethanee in old times dwelt in it; a people great and many, and strong
as the giants. They were reputed as giants, and like giants also they were;
but the Moabites called them Emethanee.And in Seir dwelt the Horaee in
former times; but the sons of Esau drave them out, and destroyed them,
and dwelt in their places, as Israel did in the land of his inheritance
which the Lord gave to them.

Now arise, (said I,) and go over the stream of Zared. And
we passed over the stream of Zared. And the days in which we were journeying
from Rekem Giah until we crossed the stream of Zared were thirty and eight
years, till all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the
camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. For the plague stroke from before
the Lord was upon them to destroy them from among the host till they were
consumed.

When all the men of war had been consumed, and had died away
from among the people, the Lord spake with me, saying: Thou art today to
pass by Lechaiath, the frontier of Moab. But when thou comest nigh over
against the Beni Ammon, be not troublesome to them, nor provoke thyself
to make war with them; for I have not given to thee of the land of the
Beni Ammon any inheritance; for I have given it to the children of Lot
to inherit. That also was reputed a land of giants; in old times giants
did dwell in it, and the Ammonites called them Hashbanee; a people great
and many, and strong as giants, but the Lord destroyed them before them)
and cast them out, and they dwelt in their places.

As did
the sons of Esau who dwelt in Seir, when He destroyed the Horaee from before
them, and drave them out, and they have dwelt in their places unto this
day. And the Avaee, who dwelt in Pheziach unto Hazah destroyed the Kaphutkaee,
who came out of Kaphutkaia, and dwelt in their place.

Arise, remove, and pass over the river of Arnon: behold, I
have delivered into thy hand Sihon, king of Heshbon, the Amorite, and his
land; begin to cast him out, and rouse thyself to make battle with him.
This day will I begin to put dread of thee and fear of thee upon the face
of the peoples which are under the whole heavens, who shall hear thy fame,
and be broken before thee.

And I sent ambassadors from the wilderness of Kedemoth unto
Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, May I pass through thy
land by the way? I will go by the way, nor turn to the right or the left:
thou shalt sell me provision for silver, and I will eat; and give me water
for silver, and I will drink; I will only go through on my feet: as the
Beni Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabaee who dwell in Lechaiath, did
to me, until I pass over Jordan to the land which the Lord our God shall
give to us. But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing to permit us to pass
through his coasts; for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit and strengthened
his heart, that He might deliver him into thy hand, as at this day. And
the Lord said to me, See, I have begun to deliver to thee Sihon and his
country; begin thou to drive him out, that thou mayest inherit his land.
And Sihon came forth to meet us, he and all his people, to give battle
at Jahaz; and the Word of the Lord our God delivered him up before us,
and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we subdued all
his cities at that time, and consumed all the towns, and the men, women,
and children, and left none to escape. Only the cattle was a booty to us,
and the spoil of the cities which we subdued. From Aroer which is upon
the bank of the river of Arnon, and the city that is by the river, even
unto Gilead, there was no city too strong for us; for the Lord our God
delivered all before us. Only to the land of the Beni Ammon thou didst
not come near, nor to all the side of the river Jubeka, nor the cities
of the mountain, nor to any of which the Lord our God had commanded us.

III. And we turned, and went up the way of Mathnan; and Og
king of Mathnan came out to meet us, he and all his people, to give battle
at Edrehi. And the Lord said to me, Fear him not; for I have delivered
him into thy hand, with all his people and his land; and thou shalt do
to him as thou hast done to Sihon king of the Amoraah, who dwelt at Heshbon.
And the Lord our God delivered Og the king of Mathnan into our hand with
all his people, and we smote him until not a remnant of him escaped. And
we subdued all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took
not from them, sixty cities, all the region of the territory of the kingdom
of Og in Mathnan. All those strong cities were fortified with gates and
bars, beside unwalled towns very many. But we consumed them as we did Sihon
king of Heshbon: we destroyed in all the cities the men, women, and children;
but all the cattle and the spoil of the cities were a prey to us. And we
took at that time from the hand of the two kings of the Amoraah, the country
on this side of Jordana, from the river of Arnon unto the mountain of Hermon.
The Zidonaee call Hermon Sirion, but the Amoraee call it the Mount of Snow:
All the cities of the plain, all Gilead, and all Mathnan, unto Salka and
Edrehi, cities of the kingdom of Og in Mathnan. For only Og king of Mathnan
remained of the remnant of the giants. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead
of iron: is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon, nine cubits its
length, and four cubits its breadth, in the cubit of the king? And their
land (which) we took into possession at that time, from Aroer, upon the
river Arnon, and half Mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, I have given
to the tribe of Reuben, and to the tribe of Gad. And the rest of Gilead,
and all Mathnan, the kingdom of Og, I have given to the half tribe of Menasheh;
all the surrounding country, even all Mathnan, which was called the Land
of the Giants. Jaer bar Menasheh took all the territory of Terakona, unto
the border of Geshurah and Aphkiros, and called it after his name, Mathnan
Kapharne-Jair, unto this day. And to Machir I have given Gilead. And to
the tribe of Reuben, and of Gad, I have given from Gilead unto the river
of Arnon (to) the middle of the river and its bound, unto the river Jubeka,
which is the border of the children of Ammon. And the plain, and the Jordan,
and the border thereof, from Genezar unto the Sea of the Plain, the Sea
of Salt, under the declivity of the height, eastward. And I instructed
you at that time, saying: The Lord your God hath given you this land to
possess it; you shall pass over armed before your brethren the sons of
Israel, all armed for the host. Only your wives, and little ones, and your
cattle, for I know that you have much cattle, shall abide in your cities
which I have given you, until the Lord hath given rest to your brethren
as well as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God
hath given to them on the other side of Jordana: and you shall return every
man to his inheritance which I have given you. And I charged Jehoshua at
that time, saying: Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath
done unto these two kings; so shall the Lord do to all the kingdoms to
which thou art going over. Fear them not, for the Word of the Lord your
God will fight for you.

SECTION XLV.

VAETHCHANNAN.

AND I prayed before the Lord at that
time, saying: O Lord God, Thou hast begun to show Thy servant Thy greatness
and Thy mighty hand; for Thou art God, whose Shekinah is in the heavens
above, and Thou rulest in the earth, and none can do according to Thy greatness
or Thy might. Let me, I pray, go over and see the good land that is beyond
Jordan, that goodly mountain, and the place of the sanctuary. But there
was displeasure with the Lord against me on your account, and He heard
me not; but said to me, It is enough for, thee; add not to speak again
before Me of this thing: go up to the summit of the height, and lift up
thy eyes to the west, the north, the south, and the east, and see with
thy eyes; for thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. But instruct Jehoshua,
and fortify, and make him strong; for he shall go over before this people,
and put them in possession of the land which thou wilt see. And we dwelt
in the valley over against Beth Peor.

IV. And now, Israel, hear the statutes
and the judgments which I am to teach you to do, that you may live, and
go in to inherit the land which the Lord God of your fathers hath given
you. Ye shall not add to the word that I command you, nor diminish from
it, to keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
Your eyes have seen what the Lord hath done with the worshippers of Baala
Peor; for all the men who went after Baala Peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed
from among you. But you who have cleaved to the fear of the Lord your God,
are alive all of you this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments,
as the Lord my God commanded me, that you may so do in the land to which
you go to possess it. And observe, and perform; for this is your wisdom
and understanding in the eyes of the nations who will hear all these statutes,
and say, Most surely this great people is a wise and understanding people.
For what people so great who hath God so nigh unto it to hearken to their
prayer in the time of their tribulation, as the Lord our God (is to us)
in every time that we pray before Him? Or what people so great which hath
statutes and judgments so true as all this law which I set before you this
day? Only take heed to thyself, and diligently keep thy soul, all the days
of thy life, lest thou forget the things which thy eyes have seen, and
they pass away from thy heart. But make them known to thy children, and
to thy children's children, (as was said) on the day when thou stoodest
before the Lord thy God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, Gather the
people together before Me, and I will make them hear My words, that they
may learn to fear Me all the days which they live on the earth, and may
teach their children. And you came near, and stood at the lower parts of
the mountain, and the mount burned with fire to the height of the heavens,
in darkness, clouds, and shadow. And the Lord spake with you from the midst
of the fire; you heard a voice of words, but you beheld no similitude;
(there was) only the Voice. And He proclaimed to you His covenant which
He commanded you to do, (even) the Ten Words; and He wrote them upon two
tables of stone.

And the Lord commanded me at
that time to teach you statutes and judgments for you to perform in the
land whither you pass over to possess it. But take heed to your souls;
for you saw no likeness in the day that the Lord spake with you from the
midst of the fire; lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you an image,
or the likeness of any form, the likeness of male or female, of any beast
on the ground, or of any bird which flieth in the air of the expanse of
the skies, of any reptile of the earth, or any fish of the waters, under
the earth; and lest thou lift up thine eyes to the heavens, and behold
the sun, or moon and stars, all the host of the heavens, and go astray
and worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath not appointed
for any of the nations that are under the whole heavens. But you hath the
Lord drawn nigh unto His service, and brought you out from the iron furnace,
(even) from Mizraim, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as at this
day. But towards me the Lord had displeasure, on account of your words,
and He sware that I should not go over Jordan, nor enter the good land
which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. For I must die in this land;
I am not to pass over the Jordan; but you are to pass over, and inherit
that good land. Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of
the Lord your God, which He hath concluded with you, and you make an image
for you, the likeness of anything about which the Lord thy God hath commanded
thee. For the Word of the Lord thy God is a consuming fire: He is a jealous
God.

When thou shalt have begotten
sons and daughters, and have grown old in the land, and thou become corrupt,
and make an image, the likeness of anything, or do what is evil before
the Lord thy God, to cause displeasure before Him; I call, this day, the
heavens and earth to witness that you will surely perish from off the land
whither you go over the Jordan to possess it: you will not prolong days
upon it, for with destruction you will be destroyed. And the Lord will
scatter you among the nations, and you will remain a numbered people[1] among the nations whither the Lord
shall lead you. And there will you serve the peoples who are worshippers
of idols, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear,
nor eat, nor smell.

Yet if from thence thou seek the fear
of the Lord thy God, thou shalt find, if thou seek for Him with thy heart,
and with all thy soul. When thou wilt be in trouble, and all these words
will have found thee, in the end of the days, and thou wilt turn unto the
fear of the Lord thy God, and be obedient to His Word, because the Lord
thy God is a merciful God; He will not forsake thee, nor destroy thee,
nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them. For ask
now of the ancient days that have been before thee, from the day that the
Lord created man upon the earth, and (ask) from one end of the heavens
to the other, if there hath been so great a thing as this, or any heard
like it, whether a people have heard the voice of the Word of the Lord
speaking from the midst of the fire as thou didst hear, and have lived.
Or (if any have seen) like miracles which the Lord hath wrought, in being
revealed to redeem to Himself a people from among a people, by miracles,
signs, and wonders, and with war, and by a mighty hand and uplifted arm,
and by grand visions, according to all that the Lord your God hath done
for you in Mizraim before your eyes. Unto thee hath it been shown, that
thou mayest know that the Lord He is God, there is none beside Him. From
the heavens thou didst hear the voice of His Word, that He might teach
thee, and upon earth He showed thee His great fire, and thou heardest His
words from the midst of the fire. And because He loved thy fathers, and
had pleasure in their children after them, He brought thee out by His Word,
by His mighty power, from Mizraim, to drive out nations greater and stronger
than thou from before thee, to bring thee in, to give thee their land to
inherit, as at this day.

Know then, this day, and revolve
it in thy heart, that the Lord He is God, whose glory is in the heavens
above, and who ruleth upon the earth beneath, (and that) there is none
but He; and keep His statutes and His commandments that I teach thee this
day, that it may be well with thee, and thy sons after thee, and thou mayest
prolong days on the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, all the days.

Then Mosheh separated three
cities on the other side of the Jordan (toward) the sunrise, that the slayer
may escape thither who may kill his neighbour unawares, not having hated
him yesterday, or before it; and that, escaping to one of those cities,
he may live: Bezer, in the wilderness, in the plain land of the tribe of
Reuben; Ramoth, in Gilead, of the tribe Gad; and Golan, in Mathnan, of
the tribe of Menasheh.

And this is the law which Mosheh set
in order before the children of Israel: these are the testimonies, statutes,
and judgments, which Mosheh spake to the children of Israel, on their coming
forth from Mizraim; on the other side of Jordan, in the vale over against
Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amoraah, who dwelt in Heshbon,
whom Mosheh and the children of Israel smote when they had come out of
Mizraim. And they took possession of his land, and the land of Og king
of Mathnan, two kings of the Amoraah, who were beyond Jordan, toward the
sunrise; from Aroer, upon the bank of the river Arnon to the mountain of
Siaon, which is Hermon; and all the plain beyond Jordan eastward unto the
sea of the plain at the declivity of the heights.

V. And Mosheh called all Israel, and
said to them: Listen, Israel, to the statutes and judgments which I speak
before you this day, and learn them, and keep them to do them. The Lord
our God confirmed a covenant with us at Horeb. The Lord confirmed not this
covenant with our fathers, but with us who are here all of us living this
day: word with word hath the Lord spoken with you at the mountain from
the midst of the fire, (I stood between the Word of the Lord and you, to
announce to you at that time the word of the Lord; for you were afraid
in presence of the fire, and went not up to the mountain,) saying: I am
the Lord thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Mizraim, from
the house of bondage; there shall not be with thee another god beside Me.
Thou shalt not make to thee an image or any likeness of that which is in
the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth;
thou shalt not worship them or serve them: for I, the Lord thy God, am
a jealous God, visiting the guilt of fathers upon rebellious children,
upon the third generation and upon the fourth of them that hate Me, when
the children complete the sins of their fathers; but doing good unto (thousands
of) generations of those who love Me, and keep My commandments. Thou shalt
not swear by the Name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not
acquit him who shall swear by His Name falsely. Keep the day of Shabbatha
to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou
shalt work, and do all thy labour; but the seventh day is the Sabbath before
the Lord thy God: thou shalt not perform any work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, thy servant, thy handmaid, thy ox, thy ass, nor any of thy
cattle, nor thy sojourner who is in thy gates; that thy servant and handmaid
may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the
land of Mizraim, and that the Lord brought thee out from thence with a
mighty hand and uplifted arm; therefore the Lord thy God hath commanded
thee to observe the Sabbath day. Honour thy father and mother, as the Lord
hath commanded, that thou mayest prolong thy days, and it may be well with
thee in the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee. Thou shalt not
kill life, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor bear false witness against
thy neighbour. Nor shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, nor covet thy
neighbour's house, his field, or his servant, or his handmaid, his ox,
or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

These words spake the Lord with all
your congregation at the mount, from the midst of the fire, the clouds
and the darkness, with a great voice, and hath not ceased.[2] And
He wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to me. But it was,
when you heard the voice from the midst of the fire and darkness, the mount
burning with fire, all the chiefs of your tribes and your elders drew near
to me; and you said, Behold, the Lord our God hath showed to us His glory
and His greatness, and we have heard the voice of His Word out of the midst
of the fire; this day have we seen that the Lord speaketh with a man,[3] and he liveth. But now why should we
die? For this great fire will consume us: if we go on to hear the voice
of the Word of the Lord our God, we shall die. For who is there of all
flesh who can hear the voice of the Word of the Living God speaking from
the midst of fire (in the manner) that we have, and can live? Go thou near,
and hear all that the Lord our God shall say, and speak thou with us all
that the Lord our God shall speak with thee, and we will hearken and will
do. And the voice of your words was heard before the Lord when you spake
with me, and the Lord said to me, The voice of the words of this people
which they have spoken with thee is heard before Me; all (the words) they
have spoken are right. O that they may have such a heart to fear Me and
keep all My commandments all days, that it may be well with them and their
children for ever. Go, and say to them, Return to your tents. But thou,
stand here before Me, and I will tell thee all the commandments, the statutes,
and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in
the land that I will give them to possess it.

And you shall observe to do as the
Lord your God hath commanded you, nor decline to the right hand or to the
left. In all the way which the Lord your God hath commanded you shall ye
walk, that you may live, and it may be well with you, and you may lengthen
out your days in the land which you are to inherit.

VI. And this is the commandment, (these
are) the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord your God hath commanded
(me) to teach you to perform in the land to which you go over to possess
it, that thou mayest fear before the Lord thy God, and keep all His statutes
and His commandments which I command thee; thou, thy sons, and thy sons'
son, all the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged. And thou,
Israel, shalt receive, and keep, and perform, that it may be well with
thee, and thou mayest increase greatly, as the Lord God of thy fathers
bath said to thee, (in) the land which produceth milk and honey.

HEAR, ISRAEL;[4] THE
LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy substance. And these
words that command thee this day shall be upon thy heart.

And thou shalt deliver them to thy children, and talk of them
when thou art sitting in thy house, and when thou goest in the way, and
in thy lying down, and thy rising up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign
upon thy hand, and they shall be for tephillin[5] between
thine eyes; and thou shalt write them upon the doorposts, and affix them
to the lintels[6] of thy house, and upon
thy gates.

And it shall be, when the Lord thy
God will have brought thee into the land which He covenanted to thy fathers,
to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, to give thee great and goodly cities which
thou buildedst not, and houses full of goods that thou didst not fill,
and cisterns hewn which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive trees which
thou didst not plant, and thou have eaten and be full; beware, lest thou
forget the fear of the Lord who brought thee out from the land of Mizraim,
from the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve
before Him, and swear by His Name. You shall not go after the idols of
the Gentiles, the idols of the peoples who surround you (for the Lord thy
God is a jealous God, His Shekinah dwelleth in the midst of thee,) lest
the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and He destroy thee
from off the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord your God as
you tempted Him in the temptation: keeping you shall keep the commandments
of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes He hath commanded
thee, and do what is right and well ordered before the Lord, that it may
be well with thee, and thou mayest enter ill and possess the good land
which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to break all thy enemies before thee,
as He hath said.

When thy son shall ask thee in time
to come, (mehar, to-morrow,) saying, What are the testimonies, statutes,
and judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? then thou shalt
say, We were servants to Pharoh in Mizraim; and the Lord brought us out
of Mizraim with a mighty hand, and put forth miracles great and sore upon
Pharoh, and all the men of his house, before our eyes; and He brought us
out from thence, to bring us in, to give us the land which He sware to
our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to perform all these statutes, to
fear the Lord our God, that all days it may be well with us, (and) that
He may preserve us alive as at this day. And it shall be our righteousness
to observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He
hath commanded us.

VII. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land into which thou goest to possess it, and cast out many
peoples from before thee, the Hittites Girgashites, Amorites, Kenaanites,
Pherizites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations, greater and mightier
than thou, and shall deliver them up before thee; then thou shalt smite
and utterly consume them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show
mercy upon them. Neither shalt thou intermarry with them; thou shalt not
give thy daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for thy son. For they
will cause thy son to go astray from serving Me, and they will worship
the idols of the Gentiles, and the anger of the Lord will be kindled against
you, and He will destroy thee speedily. But thus shall you do to them:
you shall pull down their altars, break their statues in pieces, cut down
their (sacred) groves and burn their images with fire. For thou art a people
consecrated before the Lord thy God, thee hath the Lord thy God chosen
to be to Him a people more beloved than all peoples upon the face of the
earth. Not because you were greater than any of the peoples, bath the Lord
chosen and befriended you, for you were smaller than any of the peoples;
but because the Lord had mercy on you, and that He would keep the covenant
He sware to your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand,
and redeemed thee from the house of bondage, out of the hand of Pharoh,
the king of Mizraim. Know, then, that the Lord thy God, He is God, a faithful
God, keeping covenant and mercy for them who love Him and keep His commandments
to a thousand generations, but repaying them who hate Him the good which
they have done before Him in their lives, to destroy them (in the life
to come ?). He delayeth not to do good to His enemies for the good they
may have wrought before Him in their lives, to repay them. Thou shalt therefore
observe the commandments, statutes, and judgments, which I command thee
this day, to do them.

SECTION XLVI.

EKEB.

AND it shall be that because thou wilt have obeyed these judgments,
and have observed and performed them, the Lord thy God will keep with thee
the covenant and the mercy which He sware to thy fathers. And He will love
thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee, and will bless the offspring of
thy womb, the fruit of thy land, thy corn, wine, and oil, the herds of
thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep, on the land which He sware to thy
fathers to give thee. Blessed shalt thou be above all peoples; there shall
not be among thee a barren male or a barren female, neither among thy cattle.
And the Lord thy God will remove from thee all diseases, and all the plagues
of Mizraim; the evil things that thou knowest He will not lay upon thee,
but will put them on all that hate thee. And thou shalt consume all the
peoples that the Lord thy God will give up to thee; thine eye shall not
have pity upon them, nor shalt thou serve their idols, for that will be
a stumbling-block to thee.

If thou say in thy heart, These nations are greater
than I am: how can I drive them out? thou shalt not be afraid of them;
remembering thou shalt remember what the Lord thy God did to Pharoh and
all Mizraim; the great miracles which thine eye beheld, and the signs and
wonders, the mighty hand and uplifted arm, by which the Lord thy God led
thee forth; so shall the Lord thy God do to all the nations before whom
thou art afraid. And moreover, the Lord thy God will stir up the hornet
among them, until they who remain and who hid themselves from before thee
have perished. Thou shalt not be broken down before them; for the Lord
thy God dwelleth in the midst of thee, the Great and fearful God. And the
Lord thy God will put away those nations before thee by little and little;
for thou mayest not consume them instantly, lest the wild beast of the
field multiply against thee. Yet will the Lord thy God deliver them up
before thee, and destroy them with a great destruction, till they be consumed;
and He will deliver their kings into thy hand, and destroy their names
from under the heavens, and not a man will stand before thee till thou
wilt have destroyed them. The images of their idols thou shalt burn with
fire; thou shalt not desire the silver or the gold upon them, nor take
(it) to thyself, lest thou offend through it, for it is an abomination
before the Lord thy God. Nor shalt thou bring what is abominable into thy
house, and thou be accursed as that is; but with loathing thou shalt loathe
it, and with abhorrence abhor it, for it is a thing accursed.

VIII. Every mandate that I command thee this day, you
shall observe to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess
the land which the Lord did covenant unto your fathers. And thou shalt
remember all the way that the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years
in the wilderness, that He might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what
was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments or not: and
He humbled ( or afflicted) thee, and let thee hunger, and fed thee with
the manna which thou knewest not, nor did thy fathers know; that He might
make thee to know, That not by bread only is man sustained, but by every
forth-coming word from before the Lord shall man live. Thy raiment faded
not away from thee, and thy shoes wore not out these forty years; and know
thou with thy heart, that as a man instructeth his son, (so) the Lord thy
God instructeth thee. Keep then the commandments of the Lord thy God, to
walk in the ways which are right before Him, to fear Him for the Lord thy
God bringeth thee into the good [and; a land streaming with brooks of water,
with fountain-springs, and depths (of water) gushing from valleys and hills;
a land of wheat and barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olives
yielding oil, and which produceth honey; a land where, without poverty,
thou mayest eat bread, and have want of nothing; a land whose stones are
iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest cast brass: and thou shalt
eat and be satisfied, and shalt bless the Lord thy God in the good land.

Beware, lest thou forget the fear of the Lord thy God, in
not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes, which I
command thee this day. Lest, when thou hast eaten and art full, and bast
built goodly houses and inhabited (them), and when thy oxen and sheep have
multiplied to thee, and silver and gold have increased, and whatever thou
hast is increased with thee, thy heart should be lifted up, and thou shouldest
forget the fear of the Lord thy God, who brought thee up from the land
of Mizraim, from the house of bondage; who led thee through the great and
terrible desert, the place of burning serpents and scorpions, the place
of thirsting, where there is no water, who brought out water for thee from
the hard rock; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers
knew not, that he might humble thee, and prove the, to do thee good in
thy latter end. And (lest) thou say in thy heart, My power and the
might of my hand have gathered to me these possessions: but remember the
Lord thy God, for He it is who giveth thee power to acquire riches, that
He may confirm his covenant which He sware to thy fathers, as at this day.

But it will be that if thou forget the fear of the Lord thy
God, and walk after the idols of the Gentiles to serve and worship them,
I testify against you this day that perishing you will perish. As the nations
which the Lord destroyeth from before you, so shall you perish, because
you would not obey the Word of the Lord your God.

IX. Hear, Israel: thou art this day (about) to pass over the
Jordana, to enter, to drive out nations greater and stronger than thou,
and (to take possession of) cities, great and fortified to the height of
heaven; a people great and mighty, the sons of the giants whom thou knowest,
and (of whom) thou hast heard (it said), Who can stand before the sons
of the giants? But know this day that the Word of the Lord thy God, He
it is who goeth over before thee, He who is a burning fire, He will consume
them, He will break them down before thee, and thou wilt soon drive them
out, as the Lord hath told thee. Thou shalt not (therefore) speak in thy
heart when the Lord thy God hath broken them before thee, saying: For the
sake of my righteousness hath the Lord brought me in to inherit this land;
but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord driveth them out before
thee. Not for thy righteousness or the integrity of thy heart dost thou
go in to possess their land, but for the guilt of these nations the Lord
thy God doth drive them out before thee, and that He may confirm the word
which he sware to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jakob. Know,
then, that not for thy righteousness will the Lord thy God give thee this
good land to possess it, for thou art a hard-necked people. Be mindful,
and forget not that thou didst provoke the Lord thy God to wrath in the
wilderness; from the day that thou camest out from the land of Mizraim
until thou hast come to this place, ye have been rebellious before the
Lord. And in Horeb (itself) you provoked the Lord, and aroused the Lord's
anger to destroy you. When I had gone up to the mountain to receive
the tables of the stones, the tables of the covenant which the Lord had
made with you, and I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights - I
ate no bread, I drank no water - And the Lord gave to me the two tables
of stones, written upon by the finger of the Lord, according to all the
words which the Lord had spoken with you on the mount from the midst of
the fire, on the day of the convocation. It was at the end of forty days
and nights, when the Lord gave to me the two tables of the stones, the
tables of the covenant, that the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly
from hence; for thy people whom I brought out from Mizraim are corrupted;
they have soon turned from the way that I commanded them, and have made
them a molten image. And the Lord spake to me, saying: This people are
disclosed before me, and, behold, it is a hard-necked people.

Cease
from thy prayer before me, and I will destroy them, and blot out their
name from under the heavens, and I will make thee for a people stronger
and greater than they.

And I turned and descended from the mount; and the mountain
burned with fire, and the two tables of the covenant were upon my two hands.

And
I looked, and, behold, yon had sinned before the Lord your God; you had
made you a molten calf; you had turned quickly from the way which the Lord
had commanded you. And I took the two tables, and cast them away from my
two hands, and brake them before your eyes. And I fell down before the
Lord as at the first, forty days and forty nights, bread I ate not, water
I drank not, for all your sins which you sinned to do evil before the Lord,
to provoke to anger before Him; for I was afraid before the anger and indignation
wherewith the Lord was angry against you to destroy you; but the Lord hearkened
to my prayer on that day also. And against Aharon was there great displeasure
before the Lord to destroy him; but I prayed for Aharon also at that time.

And your sin which you had made, the calf, I took and burned
it in fire, and ground it to a fine grinding till it was small as powder,
and I threw the dust of it into the stream that descended from the mount.

And at the Burning, and at the Temptation, and at the Graves
of Desire, you were rebellious before the Lord; and when the Lord sent
you from Rekem Giah, saying: Go up and possess the land I have given, then
rebelled you against the decree of the Word of the Lord your God, and would
not believe Him, nor be obedient to His Word. You have been contumacious
before the Lord from the day that I have known you; but I fell down before
the Lord the forty days and the forty nights that I was prostrate, for
the Lord had spoken to consume you.

And
I prayed before the Lord, and said: O Lord God, destroy not Thy people,
and Thine inheritance, which Thou hast redeemed by Thy power, and brought
out from Mizraim with a mighty hand. Remember Thy servants Abraham, Izhak,
and Jakob; regard not the stubbornness of this people, nor their wickedness,
nor their sin: lest the inhabitants of the land from whence Thou hast led
us should say: Because there was no power before the Lord to bring them
into the land which He had told them of, or because He hated them, He led
them forth to kill them in the wilderness. But they are Thy people, and
Thy inheritance, which thou hast led forth with Thy great power and Thy
uplifted arm.

X. At that time the Lord said to me: Hew thee two tables of
stones like the first, and come up before Me on the mount, and make thee
an ark of wood; and I will write upon the tables the words that were upon
the former tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them into the
ark. And I made an ark of sittin wood, and hewed two tables of stones like
the former, and went up to the mountain, and the two tables were in my
hand; and He wrote upon the tables according to the former writing, the
Ten Words which the Lord spake with you on the mount from the midst of
the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. And
I returned and descended from the mount, and put the tables into the ark
which I had made, and they are there, as the Lord commanded me.

And the children of Israel went forward from Bearith of the
Beni Jaakan unto Moserah; there Aharon died, and was buried there, and
Elazar his son hath ministered in his stead. From thence they journeyed
unto Gudgod, and from Gudgod unto Jatbath, a land flowing with streams
of water.

At that time the Lord had set apart the tribe of Levi, to
bear the ark of the Lord's covenant, to stand before the Lord to minister
unto Him, and to bless in His Name, unto this day. Wherefore, Levi hath
no portion or inheritance with his brethren; the gifts which the Lord shall
give him are his inheritance, as the Lord thy God hath told him. And I
stood on the mountain as in the former days, forty days and nights; and
the Lord received my prayer at that time also, that He would not destroy
thee. And the Lord said to me: Arise, go, to proceed before the people,
that they may be brought in to possess the land which I sware unto their
fathers to give them.

And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee,
but to fear before the Lord thy God, to walk in all the ways that are right
before Him, and to love Him, and to serve before the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul; to keep the commandments of the Lord,
and His statutes which I command thee this day, that it may be well with
thee? Behold, the heavens the heavens of the heavens, are the Lord's thy
God, and all that is therein; only the Lord did choose thy fathers to love
them, and He hath taken pleasure in their children after them, even in
you, above all people, as at this day. Put away, therefore, the foolishness
of your hearts, and harden your neck no more; for the Lord your God is
the God of judges, and the Lord of kings, the Great God, mighty and terrible,
before whom is no respect of persons, nor doth He accept a reward.[7] He
executeth judgment for the orphan and the widow, and hath pity on the stranger
to give him food and raiment. Be loving then to the stranger, for you were
sojourners in the land of Mizraim. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and
serve before Him; to His fear thou shalt keep close, and shalt swear by
His Name;

He is
thy glory, and He is thy God, who hath done for thee these vast and mighty
acts which thy eyes have seen. With seventy souls went thy fathers down
into Mizraim, and now the Lord thy God hath set thee as the stars of the
heavens for multitude.

XI. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keeping keep
His word, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments all days. And
you know this day what your children have not known or seen, the discipline
of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand and uplifted arm,
His miracles, and His works which He did in Mizraim, to Pharoh king of
Mizraim, and to all his land; and what He did to the host of the Mizraee,
to their horses and their chariots, when he made the waters of the Sea
of Suph to overflow their faces as they followed after you, and the Lord
destroyed them unto this day; and what He did to you in the wilderness
until your coming unto this place; and what He did unto Dathan and Abiram,
the sons of Eliab bar Reuben, when the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed
them up with the men of their house, their tents, and all the substance
they had, in the midst of all Israel; for your eyes have seen all the great
acts of the Lord which He hath wrought.

You shall observe all the precepts which I command thee this
day, that you may be strengthened, and go in and possess the land unto
which you are going over to inherit, and may prolong your days upon the
land which the Lord sware to your fathers to give them and their children,
a land producing milk and honey; for the land into which thou art going
to possess it, is not as the land of Mizraim from which thou hast come
out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and didst water it with thy feet as a
garden of herbs (or a green garden); but the land to which thou goest over
to possess is a land of hills and valleys, drinking water of the rains
of heaven; keep a land which the Lord thy God looketh after; (inquireth
for;) the eyes[8] of
the Lord thy God are evermore upon it, from the beginning unto the end
of the year.

And it shall be, if you will be diligently obedient to all
My commandments which I command you this day to love the Lord your God,
and to serve before Him with all most your heart, and with all your soul,
I will give you the rain of your land in its season, the early and the
latter; and thou shalt gather in thy corn, thy wine, and thy oil; and I
will give herbage in thy field for thy cattle, and thou shalt eat and be
satisfied.

Take heed to yourselves lest your heart be deceived, and you
turn aside to serve the gods of the Gentiles and worship them; and the
anger of the Lord be aroused against you, and He shut up the skies that
there be no rain, and the earth yield not her fruit, and you perish soon
from off the good land which the Lord will give you: but lay these my words
upon your heart, and upon your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your
hand, and let them be for tephillin between your eyes; and teach them to
your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when
thou walkest in the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up;
and write them upon the posts, and fix them to the entrance of thy house,
and upon thy gates;[9] that
your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land which
the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon
the earth.

For if you surely keep all this precept that I command you
to perform it, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all the ways that
are right before Him, and keep close unto His fear, then will the Lord
drive out all these nations from before you, that you may possess (the
lands) of nations greater and stronger than yourselves. Every place on
which the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness
and Lebanon, from the river, the river Phrat, unto the uttermost sea shall
be your border. There shall not a man stand before you; for the Lord your
God will put the fear and dread of you upon the face of all the land that
you tread upon, as the Lord hath said unto you.

SECTION XLVII.

REŤH.

BEHOLD,
I set before you this day blessings and curses: blessings, if you obey
the precepts of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; but curses,
if you obey not the precepts of the Lord your God, and turn aside from
the way that I teach you this day, to go after the idols of the peoples
whom you have not known. And it shall be, when the Lord your God hath brought
thee into the land which thou goest to possess, thou shalt set the blessings
upon the Mount of Gerizim, and the curses upon the Mountain of Ebal. Are
they not beyond Jordan, after the way of the sun-setting, in the land of
the Kenaanites, which dwell in the plains over against Gilgala, by the
side of the plain of Moreh?[10] For you are to pass over the Jordan
to enter in to inherit the land which the Lord your God will give you;
and you will possess, and dwell therein. And you shall observe to do all
the statutes and judgments which I have set before you this day.

XII. These are the commandments and judgments you shall observe
to do in the land that the Lord the God of your fathers will give to thee
to inherit all the days that you subsist upon the earth. You shall destroying
destroy all the places wherein the peoples (whose lands) you will inherit
have served their idols, upon the high mountains, and the hills, and under
every leafy tree. And you shall lay their altars in ruin, break their statues,[11] l burn their groves
with fire, cut the images of their idols in pieces, and blot out their
names from that place.

Not so shall you do before the Lord your God; but, to the
place which the Lord your God will choose that His Shekinah may dwell there,
unto the house of His Shekinah you shall seek, and thither come to offer
there your burnt offerings, your consecrated victims, your tenths, and
the separations of your hands, your vows and freewill gifts, and the firstlings
of your oxen and sheep. And there shall you eat before the Lord your God,
and rejoice in all that you have set your hand unto, you and your households,
for that the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. You shall not (then) do as
we are doing here this day, every man as (seemeth) proper in his own eyes;
for you are not come as yet to the place of quietness, and to the inheritance
which the Lord thy God will give thee. But (when) you go over the Jordan,
and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and
He hath given you rest from all your enemies round about, and you dwell
in safety, then there will be a Place which the Lord your God will choose,
to make His Shekinah to dwell there; thither shall you bring all that I
command you, your burnt offerings and consecrated oblations, your tenths
and the separations of your hands, and all the goodly things of your vows
which you may vow before the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord
your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and handmaids,
and the Levite who is among you, for he hath no part or inheritance with
you.

Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings
in every place that thou seest; but in the Place which the Lord will choose
out of one of thy tribes thou shalt offer thy sacrifices, and there do
all that I command thee. Though in any place where thy soul may desire
thou mayest kill and eat flesh, according to the blessing of the Lord thy
God, which He will give thee in all thy cities; the unclean and the clean
may eat thereof, as the flesh of the gazelle and the deer. Only of blood
you may not eat; thou shalt pour it upon the ground like water. It is not
lawful for thee to eat in thy cities of the tythe of the produce of thy
wine or oil, or the firstlings of thy bullocks or thy sheep, or of any
vow which thou hast devoted, or of thy freewill offerings, or separations
of thy hands; but before the Lord thy God shalt thou eat it, in the place
which the Lord thy God will choose; thou and thy son and daughter, thy
servant and handmaid, and the Levite who is in thy cities; and you shall
rejoice before the Lord thy God in all that thou set test thy hand unto.
Take heed to thee that thou forsake not the Levite all thy days upon thy
land.

When the Lord thy God shall have enlarged thy border, as He
bath said to thee, and thou sayest, I will eat flesh, when thy soul desireth
to eat flesh, of all the desire of thy soul thou mayest eat flesh. If the
place which the Lord thy God will choose for His Shekinah to dwell there,
be too far from thee, thou mayest kill of thy oxen and sheep which the
Lord will give thee, as I have commanded thee, and eat in thy cities of
all the desire of thy soul. As the flesh of the gazelle and the deer so
shalt thou eat it, the unclean and the clean may eat it alike. Only, be
steadfast in not eating the blood, for blood is life, and thou mayest not
eat the life with the flesh: thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it
like water upon the ground; thou shalt not eat it, that it may be well
with thee and with thy children after thee, when thou doest that which
is right before the Lord. Only thy consecrated things which thou hast,
and thy vows, thou shalt take and bring to the place that the Lord will
choose; and make thy burnt sacrifices, the flesh and the blood, upon the
altar of the Lord thy God; and the blood of thy consecrated victims thou
shalt pour out at the altar of the Lord thy God, but of the flesh thou
mayest eat. Observe and obey all these commandments which I command thee,
that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever,
when thou doest that which is meet and right before the Lord thy God.

When the Lord thy God shall have destroyed the nations (of
the land) whither thou art going to cast them out from before thee, and
He cast them out, and thou dwell in their land, take heed to thyself that
thou stumble not after them when they shall have been dispersed before
thee, and that thou seek not to their idols, saying, How did these nations
serve their idols? for so will I do also. Thou shalt not do so before the
Lord thy God; for all that is abominable before the Lord, and that He hateth,
have they done to their idols. For even their sons and daughters they have
burned in the fire. Every word I command you, that shall you observe to
perform; you shall not add to it nor diminish from it.

XIII. If there shall arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer
of dreams, and he give a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder cometh
to pass, (yet,) should he speak with thee, saying, Let us go after the
gods of the Gentiles whom thou hast not known, and let us worship them;
thou shalt not hearken to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams;
for the Lord your God is proving you, to know whether you will love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk
after the Lord your God; Him shall ye fear, and keep His commandments,
and be obedient to His Word, and serve Him, and keep close to His fear.
And that prophet, or dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; for he hath
spoken perversions against the Lord your God, who brought you out from
the land of Mizraim, and delivered you from the house of bondage, to make
you go astray from the path in which the Lord thy God hath commanded thee
to walk; and so shalt thou put away the evil doer from the midst of thee.

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy
daughter, or the wife of thy covenant,[12] or
thy friend who is as thy soul, shall persuade thee in secret, saying: Let
us go and worship the gods of the Gentiles whom thou hast not known, nor
thy fathers, gods of the nations round about you, nigh thee, or far off,
from one end of the earth to the other; thou shalt not consent to him,
nor listen to his word, nor must thy eye have pity on him; thou shalt neither
compassionate nor conceal him, but killing thou shalt kill him; thy hand
shall be upon him the first to kill him, and afterwards the hand of all
the people; and thou shalt stone him with stones that he die, because he
sought to lead thee astray from the fear of the Lord thy God who brought
thee out of the land of Mizraim, from the house of bondage; and all Israel
will hear and be afraid, and not add to do this evil thing among thee.

If thou hear in one of the cities which the Lord thy God will
give thee to dwell in, saying: Men, sons of wickedness, have gone forth
from among thee, and led away the inhabitants of their city, saying: Let
us go and worship the gods of the nations which you have not known; then
shalt thou seek and search out, and fairly inquire; and, behold, such a
thing is the truth, and this abomination is being done among thee, thou
shalt smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, and
destroy it and all that is therein and its cattle by the edge of the sword;
and thou shalt gather all the spoil of it together into the midst of its
street, and burn the city and the whole spoil thereof with fire entirely
before the Lord thy God, and it shall be a desolate heap for ever, it shall
be builded no more; and nought of the accursed thing shall cleave to thy
hand, that the Lord may turn away His anger from thee, and show mercy upon
thee, and be loving towards thee, and increase thee, as He sware unto thy
fathers; when thou shalt be obedient to the Word of the Lord thy God, to
observe all His commandments which I command thee this day, to do that
which is right before the Lord thy God.

XIV. Children are you before the Lord your God. You shall
not lacerate yourselves, nor make baldness between your eyes for the dead;
for thou art (to be) a holy people before the Lord thy God, chosen to be
unto Him a people more beloved than all the nations upon the face of the
earth. Thou shalt not eat any thing that is abominable. These are the cattle
that you may eat: oxen, lambs of the flock, and kids of the goats. The
hart, and the antelope, the forest deer, and the wild goat, the pygarg,
the buffalo, and the chamois; and any animal that hath the hoof cloven,
and that divideth the hoof into two parts, and ruminateth the cud, among
cattle, that you may eat. Nevertheless, you shall not eat of those that
(only) chew the cud, or of them that (only) separate the hoof into divided
parts: the camel, the hare, and the coney, for they bring up the cud, but
divide not the hoof, they are unclean to you; and the swine, because it
divideth the hoof, but doth not ruminate, shall be unclean to you; of their
flesh you may not eat, nor touch their carcases.

Of all that are in the waters these you may eat: all that
have fins and scales you may eat; but any (fish) that hath not fins and
scales you may not eat; it is unclean to you. You may eat any clean bird;
but of these you shall not eat: the eagle, ossifrage, osprey, gleed, vulture,
and kite after his kind, and every raven after his kind; the owl, nightbird,
gull, and hawk after his kind; the heron, swan, and stork, the cormorant,
pelican, and owl; the bittern and ibis after his kind; the lapwing and
the bat: and no reptile may you eat whose flesh is unclean to you; but
you may eat any fowl (or winged thing) that is clean.

You shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou
mayest give it to the uncircumcised stranger who is in thy city, and he
may eat it; or thou mayest sell it to the outward people; for thou art
to be a holy people to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not eat flesh with
the milk.

Thou shalt tythe all the produce of thy seed, and all that
thy field may bring forth from year to year; and before the Lord thy God
in the place which He will choose to make His Shekinah dwell there, thou
shalt eat the tythe of thy corn, wine, and oil, and the firstlings of thy
herd and flock, that thou mayest learn to fear before the Lord thy God
all days. But if the way be too great for thee, so that thou art not able
to bring it, if the way be too distant from the place which the Lord thy
God may choose to make His Shekinah to dwell there, when the Lord thy God
shall have blessed thee, then thou shalt put (change) it into silver, and
bind the silver in thy hand, and go to the place which the Lord thy God
will choose, and shalt give the silver for whatever thy soul may please,
for oxen, sheep, wine, new or old, or any thing thy soul may desire, and
shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and rejoice, thou, the men of
thy house, and the Levite who is in thy cities; thou shalt not forsake
him, for he hath no portion or inheritance with thee.

At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithes
of thy produce in that year, and lay it up in thy cities and the Levite,
because he hath no part or inheritance with thee, and the stranger, the
orphan, and the widow who are in thy cities, shall come and eat and be
satisfied, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy
hand which thou shalt do.

XV. At the end of seven years thou shalt make the Release,[13] and this is the sentence (word) of
the Release: That every man who is a creditor[14] shall give release
to him who oweth to his neighbour; he shall not exact it from his neighbour
or his brother, because the release is proclaimed before the Lord. From
a son of the Gentiles thou mayest demand; but that which is with thy brother,
thou shalt release by thy hand. Save when there shall not be the poor among
thee, for the Lord in blessing will bless thee in the land which the Lord
thy God will give thee for a possession to inherit. Only if thou wilt indeed
be obedient to the Word of the Lord thy God, and observe to do all these
precepts which I command thee this day; for the Lord thy God doth bless
thee, as He hath said to thee: and thou shalt lend to many peoples, but
thou shalt not take a loan ; and thou shalt have rule over many peoples,
but they shall not have rule over thee.

If there be with thee a poor man of thy brethren, in one of
the cities in the land which the Lord thy God will give thee, thou shalt
not harden thy heart, nor shut up thy hand from thy poor brother; but thou
shalt open thy hand to him, and lend, according to the measure of his want,
of that which he may need. Beware, lest there be a word with thy wicked
heart, saying, The year of release draweth near, and thine eye be evil
toward thy poor brother, and thou give not to him, and he cry against thee
before the Lord, and there be guiltiness in thee. Giving thou shalt give
to him, and thy heart shall not be evil when thou givest to him: because
for this thing the Lord thy God will bless thee in all thy works, and in
all thou put test thy hand unto. For the poor will not cease (to be) in
the midst of thy land; therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt verily
open thy hand to thy brother, to thy afflicted, and to thy poor in thy
land.

If thy brother, a son of Israel, or a daughter of Israel,
be sold to thee, and shall have served thee six years, in the seventh year
let him go, a son of liberty, from thee. And when thou let test him go
free from thee, thou shalt not send him away empty. But thou shalt separate
to him from thy flock, and thy floor, and thy wine-press, and give to him
of that which the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. And thou shalt remember
that thou wast a servant in the land of Mizraim, and the Lord thy God set
thee free: therefore I command thee this thing today.

But if he say to thee, I will not go out from being with thee,
because he loveth thee, and the men of thy house, (and) because it is good
for me to be with thee, then thou shalt take an awl, put it through his
ear, and into the door, and he shall be a ministering servant to thee evermore.
And also likewise shalt thou do to thy handmaid.

It shall not be a hardship in thy eyes when thou dost send
him from thee to be a son of freedom, for he hath been doubly worth a hireling,
serving thee six years; and the Lord thy God will bless thee in all that
thou shalt do.

Every firstling male which cometh of thy cattle or thy sheep,
thou shalt consecrate before the Lord thy God: thou shalt not work with
the firstling of thy herd, nor shear the firstling of thy flock. Thou shalt
eat it before the Lord thy God from year to year in the place which the
Lord will choose, thou and the men of thy house. And if there be any blemish
(spot) in it, (if it be) lame, or blind, or have any evil spot, thou shalt
not sacrifice it before the Lord thy God: thou mayest eat it in thy cities,
unclean (persons) and clean alike (may eat it), as the antelope and the
hart. Only thou shalt not eat the blood, but pour it out upon the ground
like water.

XVI. Observe the month of Abiba, and perform the pascha before
the Lord thy God; for in the month of Abiba the Lord thy God brought thee
out of Mizraim, and wrought signs for thee in the night. And thou shalt
sacrifice the pascha before the Lord thy God, with the lambs (young) of
thy flock, and with consecrated victims from thy herd, in the place which
the Lord will choose to make His Shekinah dwell there. Thou shalt not eat
leaven with it. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread with it, the
bread of humiliation; for in haste didst thou come out of the land of Mizraim:
that thou mayest remember the day of thy coming from the land of Mizraim
all the days of thy life. And there shall not be leaven seen with thee
within all thy borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh of that
which thou didst sacrifice in the evening of the first day remain until
the morning. Thou hast not liberty to sacrifice the pascha in anyone of
thy cities which the Lord thy God will give thee; but in the place which
the Lord thy God will approve to make His Shekinah dwell, there thou shalt
sacrifice the pascha, in the evening, at the going away of the sun; the
time of thy coming out of Mizraim. And thou shalt dress and eat it in the
place which the Lord thy God shall favour, and in the morning turn and
go to thy tent. Six days thou shalt eat unleavened, and on the seventh
day gather together before the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work.

Seven weeks number to thee from the beginning (of the harvest);
when the omer of the elevation[15] is
reaped with the sickle, shalt thou begin to number the seven weeks. And
thou shalt perform the festival of the weeks before the Lord thy God, with
a tribute of the free-will offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give
as the Lord thy God will have blessed thee. And thou shalt rejoice before
the Lord thy God, thou, thy son, thy daughter, thy man-servant, thy handmaid,
the Levite who is in thy cities, the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow
who are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God will choose to make
His Shekinah to dwell there. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant
in Mizraim, and keep and perform these statutes.

The Feast of Tabernacles thou shalt make to thee seven days,
when thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor, and from thy wine-press.
And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, thy son, thy daughter, thy servant,
thy handmaid, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, who
are in thy cities. Seven days shalt thou hold the festival before the Lord
thy God in the place the Lord shall choose, because the Lord thy God will
have blessed thee in all thy produce, and in all the work of thy hands,
and therefore shalt thou rejoice.

Three times in the year all thy males are to appear before
the Lord thy God in the place that He will choose; at the Feast of the
Unleavened, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles; and they
shall not appear before the Lord empty; but every man with the gift of
his hand, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which He hath given
thee.

SECTION XLVIII.

SHOPHETIM.

JUDGES and officers shalt thou appoint to thee in all thy
cities which the Lord thy God will give thee throughout thy tribes, and
they shall judge the people with true judgment. Thou shalt not pervert
judgment, nor have respect to persons, nor receive a gift; for a gift blindeth
the eyes of the wise, and depraveth right words. Thou shalt follow that
which is surely true, that thou mayest live and inherit the land which
the Lord thy God will give thee. Thou shalt not plant thee a grove, nor
any tree beside the altar of the Lord thy God that thou makest thee, nor
erect a statue which the Lord thy God abhorreth.

XVII. Thou shalt not sacrifice before the Lord thy God a bullock
or ram which hath blemish in it, not anything that is evil; for that is
abomination before the Lord thy God.

If, in anyone of the cities which the Lord thy God will give
thee, there be found a man or woman who hath done evil before the Lord
thy God in transgressing his covenant, and going to do service to the idols
of the Gentiles, or to the sun, moon, or all the host of the heavens, in
worshipping them, which I have not commanded; and it be told thee, and
thou hast heard ; thou shalt inquire fairly, and if such word be true that
this abomination hath been wrought in Israel, thou shalt bring forth that
man or woman, and stone them with stones that they die. On the word of
two witnesses or, of three shall he die who is guilty of death: he shall
not die on the word of one witness. The hands of the witnesses shall be
upon him first to kill him, and the hands of all the people afterward;
and thou shalt put down the doer of evil from among you.

If a matter for judgment be extraordinary to thee, between
blood and blood, between cause and cause, or between plague and plague,
of leprosy, they being matters of divided judgment in thy cities, then
thou shalt arise and go up to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose,
and come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who may be in those
days, and inquire; and they will show thee the sentence of decision.

And
thou shalt do according to the word of the sentence which they will show
thee from the place which the Lord will choose, and thou shalt observe
to do according to all that they will teach thee. Upon the word of the
law which they teach thee, and upon the judgment they tell thee, thou shalt
act; thou shalt not swerve from the word they will have shown thee, to
the right or the left. And the man who doeth wickedly in not receiving
from the priest who standeth there to minister before the Lord thy God,
or from the judge, that man shall die; and thou shalt put down the evil
doer from Israel. And all the people will hear and be afraid, and do wickedly
no more.

When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God will
give thee, and dost possess and dwell in it, and thou mayest say, I will
appoint a king over me, like the nations who are about me; thou mayest
verily appoint over thee a king whom the Lord thy God will choose, from
among thy brethren thou shalt appoint the king over thee. Thou shalt not
have power to set over thee a foreign man, who is not thy brother. Only
he shall not multiply to him horses, nor cause the people to return to
Mizraim for the purpose of multiplying horses; for the Lord hath said to
you, Ye shall no more return by that way. Neither shall he multiply wives
to him, that his heart be not turned away; nor shall he increase silver
and gold for himself greatly. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the
throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this Law in
a book, out (of that which is) before the priests, the Levites. And he
shall have it with him, to read in it all the days of his life, that he
may learn to fear before the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this
law, and these statutes, to perform them: that his heart may not be lifted
up from his brethren, nor swerve from the precepts of the Lord to the right
or to the left, and may prolong (his days) in his kingdom, he and his sons
in the midst of Israel.

XVIII. For the priests and Levites, (even) all the tribe of
Levi, there shall be no part or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat
the oblations of the Lord and his inheritance, but have no heritage among
their brethren, the gifts presented unto the Lord they are his heritage,
as the Lord hath said to him.

And this is what shall appertain to the priests from the people,
from them who offer a sacrifice, whether bullock or lamb; they shall give
to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the maw. The first of thy corn,
wine, and oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, thou shalt set
apart for him. For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes
to stand to minister in the Name of the Lord, he, and his sons, all the
days.

And if a Levite come from one of thy cities out of all Israel,
where he hath dwelt, and come with all the desire of his soul, to the place
which the Lord will choose, then he shall minister in the Name of the Lord
his God with his brethren the Levites who minister there before the Lord.
Portion for portion shall they eat, beside the accustomed allotment which
cometh on the Sabbath, as the fathers have appointed. When thou hast entered
into the land which the Lord thy God will give thee, thou shalt not learn
to do after the abominations of these peoples: No one shall be found among
thee who maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, using
enchantments, observing times or augury or witchcraft, nor an incantator,
or a consulter at a heathen oracle, or a wizard, or an inquirer from the
dead: for all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord; and because
of these abominations the Lord thy God driveth them out from before thee.
Thou shalt be perfect in the fear of the Lord thy God. For these nations
which thou shalt possess hearkened to diviners and enchanters; not so hath
the Lord given thee to do. A PROPHET from among thee, of thy brethren,
like me, will the Lord thy God raise up unto thee, to him shall ye hearken.
According to all that thou didst ask before the Lord thy God at Horeb on
the day of the assembly, saying: Let me not again hear the voice of the
Word of the Lord my God, and let me not see the great fire any more, lest
I die. And the Lord said to me, That which they have spoken is right: I
will raise up to them a Prophet from among them like unto thee, and I will
put My words of prophecy upon his lips, and he will speak to them all that
I shall command him. And the man who will not hearken to My words which
he will speak in My Name, My Word will require it of him.

But a prophet who shall do wickedly in speaking in My Name
a word which I had not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the
name of the gods of the Gentiles, that prophet shall die. And if thou say
in thy heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?
When a prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord, if the word come not to
pass, neither be confirmed, that is a word which the Lord hath not spoken:
of the prophet who hath spoken in wickedness thou shalt not be afraid.

XIX. When the Lord thy God hath destroyed the nations whose
land the Lord thy God will give thee, and you possess it, and dwell in
their cities and houses; three cities shalt thou set apart to thee within
thy land, which the Lord thy God will give thee to inherit. Thou shalt
prepare for thee a way, and divide into three parts the boundary of thy
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess, for any manslayer to
escape thither. And this shall be the case of the manslayer who fleeth
thither that he may live: he who shall have slain his neighbour unwittingly,
he not having hated him yesterday or before. As, when a man goeth with
his neighbour into the thicket to cut wood, and his hand with the iron
is driven aside in cutting the wood, and the iron flieth off from the handle
and striketh (findeth) his neighbour, and he be killed, he shall flee to
one of these cities that he may live; lest the avenger of blood pursue
him while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long,
and destroy his life; he not being guilty of death, because he had not
hated him in time past. Wherefore, I command thee, saying: Thou shalt set
apart to thee three cities. And when the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy
border, as He sware to thy fathers, and give thee all the land which He
said to thy fathers He would give, if thou wilt keep all this commandment
which I command thee this day, to perform it, to love the Lord thy God,
and to walk in the ways that are right before Him all the days; then thou
halt add yet three cities to those three, that innocent blood may not be
shed within thy land which the Lord thy God will give thee to inherit,
and that the guilt of murder may not be upon thee.

But if a man bear hatred to his neighbour, and lie in wait
for him, l and rise up against him, and destroy his life, and he die, and
he flee to one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send
and take him from thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger
of blood, and he shall die. Thine eye shall not have pity upon him, and
thou shalt do away with the shedding of innocent blood from Israel, that
it may be well with thee.

Thou shalt not remove the boundary of thy neighbour which
he hath set for a limit in the inheritance which thou shalt possess in
the land the Lord thy God will give thee to inherit.

One witness shall not rise up (alone) against a man for any
iniquities or sins, or any sin by which he (may have) transgressed; but
upon the word of two or of three witnesses shall the case be confirmed.
If a false witness stand up against a man to testify against him with perversity,
then the two men to whom the cause belongeth shall stand in the presence
of the Lord before the priests and judges who shall be in those days; and
the judges shall make inquest fairly, and, behold, he hath testified falsely,
and the testimony is false that he bath witnessed against his brother,
then you shall do to him as he had designed to do to his brother, and so
shall you put away the evil doer from among you. And the rest shall hear
and be afraid, and not do any more like this evil thing among thee.

And
thine eye shall not have pity: life for life; eye for eye; tooth for tooth;
hand for hand; foot for foot.

XX. When thou goest out to war with thy adversaries, and seest
horses, and chariots, and more people than thou, be not afraid of them;
for thy helper is the Word of the Lord thy God, who brought thee up from
the land of Mizraim. And it shall be when you draw nigh to battle, that
the priest shall approach, and speak with the people, and say to them,
Hear, Israel: you come this day to do battle with your enemies: let not
your heart waver, neither be afraid, or confounded, or broken before them;
for the Lord your God (is He) who goeth before you to fight for you against
your enemies, to save you. And the officers shall speak before the people,
saying: What man is there who hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated
it? let him go and return to his house, lest he be slain in the battle,
and another man dedicate it. And what man who hath planted a vineyard,
but hath not made it common (for use)? let him go and return to his house,
lest he be slain in the battle, and another man make it common, (or partake
of it). And what man hath betrothed a wife, and not taken her? let him
go and return to his house, lest he be slain in the battle, and another
man take her. And the officers shall yet speak to the people, and say:
What man is there who is afraid and broken-hearted? Let him return to his
house, and not make the heart of his brethren to be broken as his heart.
And it shall be, when the officers have finished to speak with the people,
they shall appoint captains of the host at the head of the people.

When thou drawest nigh to a city to make war against it, then
proclaim to it words of peace. And if it be that it make thee an answer
of peace, and open to thee, then all the people who dwell in it shall be
tributaries to thee and serve thee. But if it will not make peace with
thee, but will have war with thee, then thou shalt besiege it: and when
the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thy hand, thou mayest smite all
the males thereof by the sentence of the sword; but the women, children,
cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil, thou shalt make
booty for thyself; and thou &halt eat the spoil of thy enemies, which
the Lord thy God will have given thee. Thus shalt thou do to all cities
which are remote from thee, but are not of the cities of these nations;
for of the cities of these nations which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
thou shalt not spare alive any breathing thing, but utterly destroy them,
Hittites and Amorites, Kenaanites and Pheresites, Hivites and Jebusites,
as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that they may not teach you to
do according to all their abominations which they have done to their idols,
and you sin against the Lord your God.

When thou layest siege to a city many days in making war against
it to subdue it, thou shalt not destroy the trees (that are about) it,
nor lift up the iron against them: for of them thou mayest eat; thou shalt
not cut them down, for the tree of the field is not like a man, to come
against thee in the siege. Only a tree which thou knowest is not for food,
thou mayest destroy and cut down; and thou shalt build bulwarks (palisades)
against the city which maketh war with thee, until thou subdue it.

When in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to inherit
there may be found one who is slain, lying in the field, and it is not
known who hath killed him, then thy elders and judges shall come forth
and admeasure unto the cities that surround the dead man; and the elders
of the city that is nearest to the dead man shall take an heifer of the
herd which hath not been worked with, nor hath drawn on the yoke. And the
elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to an uncultivated valley
(or field) which is not tilled nor sown, and there cut off the heifer in
the field. And the priests the sons of Levi shall go near, for them the
Lord thy God hath chosen to minister to Him, and to bless in the Name of
the Lord, and on their word shall every controversy or stroke of leprosy
(be adjudged); and all the elders of that city which is nearest to the
dead man shall wash their hands over the heifer which hath been cut off
in the field; and shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood,
and our eyes have not seen. And the priests shall say, Forgive Thy people
Israel whom Thou, O Lord, hast redeemed, and let not the guilt of innocent
blood be among Thy people Israel. And it shall be forgiven them concerning
the blood: so shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among
you, when thou shalt do that which is right before the Lord.

WHEN thou goest out to war against thy enemies, and the Lord
thy God doth deliver them into thy hand, and thou takest them captive;
and thou seest among the captives a woman of fair countenance, and hast
a desire for her, and wouldst take her unto thee to wife; then thou shalt
bring her into thy house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails,
and take off from her the dress of her captivity, and dwell in thy house,
and mourn for her father and mother a month of days; and afterward thou
mayest go to her and marry her, and she shall be thy wife.

But if it be that thou hast no pleasure in her, then thou
mayest send her away by herself: thou shalt in no wise sell her for money,
nor make merchandise of her, for thou hast afflicted her.

If a man have two wives, the one beloved and the other hated,
and they have borne sons, the beloved one and the hated one, and the firstborn
son belong to the hated; then in the day that he maketh his sons to inherit
what he hath, he shall not make the son of the beloved to be (as) the firstborn
over the head (face) of the son of the hated, the (actual) firstborn. For
he shall distribute to the firstborn the son of the hated by giving him
two parts of all his possession; for he is the beginning of his strength,
and to him pertaineth the birthright.

If a man hath a son perverse and rebellious, who will not
obey the word of his father or his mother, and, though they instruct him,
will not hearken to them;

then
his father and mother shall lay hold of him, and bring him forth before
the elders of his city at the gate of the judgment house of his place,
and shall say to the elders of the city, This our son is perverse and rebellious;
he will not obey our words, he is a devourer of flesh and a taker of wine;
then all the men of the city shall stone him with stones, that he die;
and thou shalt put a way the evil doer from among you, and all Israel will
hear, and be afraid. When a man guilty of the judgment of death is put
to death, and thou hast hanged him on a gibbet; his body shall not remain
upon the gibbet, but thou shalt surely bury him on that day: for he was
hanged because he had sinned before the Lord; and thy land which the Lord
thy God hath given thee to inherit shall not be defiled.

XXII. Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his lamb going
astray, and turn thyself aside from them; thou shalt surely bring them
back to thy brother. And if thy brother be not near to thee, or if thou
know him not, then thou shalt bring it into thy house, and it shall be
with thee until thou make inquiry for thy brother, and then thou shalt
restore it to him.

In
like manner shalt thou do with his ass, and with his garment, and with
any lost thing of thy brother's which thou mayest have found, it is not
lawful for thee to conceal it. Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or
his ox fallen in the way, and turn thyself away from them, thou shalt surely
lift them up for him.

The adorning of a man shall not be upon a woman, nor shall
the apparel of a man be like the apparel of a woman; for everyone who doeth
these things is abominable before the Lord thy God.

If thou find the nest of a bird before thee on the way, in
any tree, or upon the ground, with young ones, or eggs, and the mother
lying over the young ones, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the mother
with the offspring. Thou shalt send away the mother, and take the young
ones with thee; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest prolong
thy days.

When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a parapet
to thy roof, that thou mayest not bring the guilt of the blood of the slain
upon thy house, by the falling of anyone who may fall there-from.

Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with mixed (seeds), lest what
cometh from the seed which thou sowest, and the produce of thy vineyard,
be unclean.

Thou
shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. Thou shalt not dress with
a contexture of woollen and of linen joined together. Thou shalt make thee
fringes (or tassels) upon the four corners of thy garment with which thou
coverest thyself.

If a man take a wife, and go unto her, and dislike her, and
lay an occasion of words about her, or bring out an evil name upon her,
and say, I took this woman and came to her, and I have not found her to
be a virgin: then shall the father and mother of the damsel bring forth
the tokens of the damsel's virginity before the elders of the city, at
the gate of the judgment house of the place; and the father of the damsel
shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he
hateth her; and, behold, he hath set an occasion of words, saying, I have
not found the virginity of thy daughter; but these are the tokens of my
daughter's virginity. And he shall spread the cloth before the elders of
the city. And the elders of the city shall take that man and scourge him,
and fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give to the father of the
damsel, because he brought out an evil name upon a virgin of the house
of Israel. And she shall be his wife, he hath no power to put her away
all his days. But if this word be true, and the tokens of virginity are
not found unto the damsel, then they shall bring out the damsel to the
door of her father's house, and the men of that city shall stone her with
stones that she die; for she hath wrought shame in Israel in playing whoredom
in her father's house, and thou shalt put away the evil doer from among
you.

If a man be found lying with a woman, the wife of (another)
man, they shall be both of them put to death, the man who lay with the
woman, and the woman; and thou shalt put away the evil doer from Israel.
If a man find in the city a damsel, a virgin, who is betrothed to a man,
and lie with her, then shall you bring them both out to the gate of that
city, and stone them with stones that they die; the damsel because she
cried not out in the city, and the man because he humiliated his neighbour's
wife; and thou shalt put away the evil doer from among you. But if a man
find the betrothed damsel in the field, and prevail against her, and lie
with her, then only the man who lay with her shall be put to death; but
unto the damsel thou shalt not do anything; there is not with the damsel
guilt of the judgment of death; for as when a man riseth up against his
neighbour and killeth him, even so is this matter; he found her in the
field, the betrothed damsel cried, but there was none to deliver. If a
man find a damsel, a virgin who is not betrothed, and lay hold of her and
lie with her, and they be found, then the man who lay with her shall give
to the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife;
because he had humbled her, he shall not have power to send her away all
his days. A man shall not take his father's wife, nor uncover the skirt
of his father.

XXIII. He who is castrated or ruptured shall not be clean
so as to enter into the congregation of the Lord. A bastard or mixed person
(mamzer) shall not be clean, so as to enter into the congregation of the
Lord; his offspring also to the tenth generation shall not be clean, so
as to enter into the congregation of the Lord.

An
Ammonite or a Moabite shall not be clean, so as to enter into the congregation
of the Lord; neither to the tenth generation shall they be clean ever to
enter the congregation of the Lord; because they met you not with bread
and water in the way, when you came up from Mizraim; and because they hired
Bilaam bar Beor from Pethor Aram, upon the Phrat, to curse thee. But the
Lord thy God would not hearken to Bileam, and the Lord thy God turned the
curses into blessings, because the Lord thy God loved thee. Thou shalt
not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever. Thou shalt
not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother; thou shalt not abhor a Mizraite,
for thou wast a sojourner in his land. The children that are begotten of
them of the third generation shall be clean, so as to enter into the congregation
of the Lord. When thou goest forth a host against thy enemies, then beware
of every wicked thing. If there be among thee a man who is not clean, by
an accident of the night, let him go forth without the camp, let him not
enter into the midst of the camp, but at eventide let him wash with water,
and at sunset he may come into the camp. And a place shall be appointed
for thee outside of the camp, that thou mayest go thither without.

And
thou shalt have a blade upon thy weapon, that when thou sit test abroad
thou mayest dig with it, and cover that which cometh from thee. For the
Shekinah of the Lord thy God walketh amid thy camp to save thee and deliver
up thy enemies before thee, and thy camp shall be sacred, that nothing
that offendeth may be seen among thee, lest His Word turn away from doing
thee good.

Thou shalt not deliver up a slave of the Gentiles into the
hand of his master, when he hath escaped to thee from his master; he shall
dwell with thee in thy midst in the place that he may choose in one of
thy cities where it may be best for him; thou shalt not oppress him. No
woman of the children of Israel may be the wife of a man who is a slave;
neither shall any man of the sons of Israel take a bondwoman to wife. Thou
shalt not bring the hire of fornication nor the price of a dog into the
house of the sanctuary of the Lord thy God, for any vow; for even both
of them are an abomination before the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not make
usury of thy brother; the usury of money, of corn, or of any thing that
produceth usury. From a son of the Gentiles thou mayest take usury, but
from thy brother thou shalt not take it; for the Lord thy God will bless
thee in all that thou put test thy hand unto in the land to which thou
goest to possess it.

When thou vowest a vow before the Lord thy God, thou shalt
not delay to fulfil it; for the Lord thy God requiring will require it
of thee, and it would become sin in thee. Yet if thou shouldst forbear
to vow, it will not be sin in thee. What hath gone forth from thy lips
thou shalt observe and perform; as thou hast vowed before the Lord thy
God, (thou shalt perform) freely what thou hast spoken with thy lips.

If thou comest for hire into thy neighbour's vineyard, thou
mayest eat grapes for the satisfying of thy life; but thou shalt not put
(them) into thy vessel.

If
thou comest into thy neighbour's ripe corn, thou mayest pluck the full
ears with thy hand, but not put in the sickle upon thy neighbour's corn.

XXIV. When a man shall have taken a wife, and become her husband,
and she hath not found favour in his eyes, because he hath found something
wrong in her, then he may write for her a bill of divorcement, and give
it into her hand, and send her from his house. And when she hath departed
from his house,

she
may go and become (the wife) of another man. And if the latter husband
dislike her, and write her a bill of divorce, and put it into her hand,
and dismiss her from his house; or if the latter husband who had taken
her to be his wife shall die, the first husband who had put her away hath
no power to return to take her to be his wife, after that she hath been
defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord; and thou shalt not
cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to inherit. When
a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go forth with the army, nor shall
any transaction be (laid) upon him; he shall be free in his house for a
year, that he may cheer (or, may enjoy himself with) his wife whom he hath
taken.

No man shall take as a pledge the millstones (either lower)
or upper; for by them is made the subsistence of every living man. If a
man be found stealing a person of his brethren of the sons of Israel, to
make merchandise of him, or to sell him, that man shall be put to death,
and thou shalt put away the evil doer from among thee. Take heed, in the
plague of leprosy, to observe and perform entirely all that the priests,
the Levites, shall teach you; as I have commanded them, you shall observe
to do. Remember what the Lord the God did unto Miriam, in the way when
you came out of Mizraim.

When thou hast lent the use of anything to thy neighbour,
thou shalt not enter into his house to take his pledge. Thou shalt stand
without, and the man to whom thou hast lent shall bring out the pledge
to thee. And if the man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge;
thou shalt return him his pledge at sunset, that he may sleep in his garment,
and may bless thee, and it shall be righteousness before the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt not oppress an hireling who is needy and poor, (whether he be)
of thy brethren, or of thy sojourners who are in thy land or thy cities.
In his day thou shalt give him his hire; thou shalt not let the sun go
down upon it, for he is needy, and to it he delivereth his life (soul)
; that he cry not against thee before the Lord, and it be sin in thee.
The fathers shall not die for the children, nor shall children die for
the fathers; a man shall die for his own sin. Thou shalt not wrest the
judgment of the stranger or the orphan, nor take the garment of the widow
for a pledge; but thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Mizraim,
and that the Lord thy God redeemed thee from thence; therefore I command
thee to do this thing.

When thou art harvesting thy harvest in thy field, and hast
forgotten a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not return to take it; let it
be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, that the Lord thy God may
bless thee in all the work of thy hands. When thou beatest thy olive (trees),
thou shalt not make search for what thou bast left behind thee; let it
be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. When thou art gathering
thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean the grapes that are left behind thee;
let them be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; and remember that
thou wast a bondman in the land of Mizraim; therefore have I commanded
thee to do this thing.

XXV. If there be (a case for) judgment between men, let them
bring it to the, judges, that they may adjudicate; and they shall justify
the innocent, and condemn the guilty. And if the guilty be condemned to
be scourged, the judge shall cause him to lie down, and have him scourged
before him (with stripes), in number according to the measure of his guilt.
Forty (times) he may smite him, not more, lest he should go on to smite
him above these with many stripes, and thy brother be made vile in thy
eyes. Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox while he treadeth out (the
corn). If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, having no son,
the wife of the deceased shall not marry another man without; her husband's
brother shall go to her, and take her to him to wife, and marry her for
his brother. And the first-born that she beareth shall keep up the name
of his deceased brother, that his name be not blotted out from Israel.
But should the man be unwilling to take the wife of his brother, his brother's
wife shall go up to the gate of the house of judgment, and say before the
elders, My husband's brother refuseth to keep up a name to his brother
in Israel; he is not willing to marry me. Then the elders of his city shall
call him, and speak with him; and if he rise up and say, It is not my pleasure
to take her; then shall his brother's wife approach him in the presence
of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face,
and answer, and say, Thus let it be done to the man who will not build
up the house of his brother. And his name shall be called in Israel, The
house of the loosed shoe.

XXV. If men strive together, a man and his brother, and the
wife of one (of them) come nigh to save her husband from the hand of him
who smiteth him, and put forth her hand and seize the place of his shame,
then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall have no pity on her.

Thou shalt not have in thy bag weight and weight, great and
small.

Thou
shalt not have in thy house measure and measure, great and small:

perfect
weights and true shalt thou have, perfect measures and true shalt thou
have, that thy days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee: for everyone who doeth these things, everyone who acteth falsely,
is an abomination before the Lord thy God.

Remember what Amalek did to thee in the way, when thou camest
up out of Mizraim; how he overtook thee in the way, and slew of thee all
who were following behind thee when thou wast faint and weary; and he was
not afraid before the Lord. Therefore when the Lord thy God shall have
given thee rest from all thy enemies round about, in the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee for a possession to inherit, thou shalt blot out
the memory of Amalek from under the heavens: thou shalt not be forgetful.

SECTION L.

THABO.

XXVI. And when thou hast entered into the land which the Lord
thy God will give thee for possession, and thou inherit and dwell in it,
thou shalt take of the first of all the produce of the earth which thou
shalt bring up from the land the Lord thy God will give thee, and put it
into a basket, and go to the place which the Lord thy God will choose to
make His Shekinah to dwell there. And thou shalt come unto the priest who
will be in those days, and say to him: I profess this day before the Lord
thy God, that I have come into the land which the Lord did covenant to
our fathers to give them. And the priest shall take the basket from thy
hand, and lay it down before the altar of the Lord thy God; and thou shalt
answer and say before the Lord thy God:

Laban the Aramite sought to destroy my father, I and he went
down to Mizraim, and dwelt there with a few people, but became there a
people great and strong. But the Mizraee maltreated and afflicted us, and
laid hard labour upon us.

And
we prayed before the Lord, the God of our fathers; and the Lord heard our
prayer, and our travail, weariness, and oppression were manifest before
Him; and the Lord brought us out of Mizraim with a mighty hand and uplifted
arm, with great visions, signs, and wonders, and brought us to this place,
and gave us this land, a land producing milk and honey. And now, behold,
I have brought the first fruits of the land which Thou, O Lord, hast given
me.

And thou shalt set it down before the Lord thy God, and worship
before the Lord thy God. And thou shalt rejoice in all the good which the
Lord thy God hath given thee, with the men of thy house, the Levite and
the stranger who is among you.

When thou hast made an end of tything all the tythe
of thy produce in the third year, the year of the tythes, and hast given
it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, that they may
eat within thy cities and be satisfied, then thou shalt say before the
Lord thy God:

I have set apart the consecrated tenth from my house, and
have given also to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,
according to all Thy commandment which Thou hast commanded me. I have not
transgressed Thy commandment, nor been forgetful. I have not eaten of it
in my mourning, nor exchanged ally of it for what is unclean, nor given
of it for the dead. I have been obedient to the Word of the Lord my God,
and have done according to all that Thou hast commanded me. Look down from
the heavens, the habitation of Thy holiness, and bless Thy people Israel,
and the land which Thou hast given us, as Thou didst swear to our fathers,
a land producing milk and honey.

This day doth the Lord thy God command thee to do these statutes
and judgments, and to keep and perform them with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul.

This
day hast thou declared (or avouched) the Lord to be thy God, and to walk
in the ways that are right before Him, and Ito keep His statutes, His commandments,
and His judgments, and to be obedient to His word. And the Lord hath declared
thee this day to be His beloved people, as He hath said unto thee, that
thou mayest observe all His commandments, and that He may set thee above
all the nations whom He hath made, in praise, and in name, and in greatness,
and that thou mayest be a holy people before the Lord thy God, as He hath
spoken.

XXVII. And Mosheh and the elders of Israel instructed the
people, saying: Observe all the commandments which I command you this day.
In the day that you pass over the Jordan to the land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee, thou shalt set thee up great stones, and cover them with
plaster (or lime), and write upon them all the words of this law, when
thou hast passed over to go into the land which the Lord thy God giveth
thee, a land producing milk and honey, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath
said to thee. When you have passed the Jordan, you shall set up those stones
which I command you this day, on the mountain of Ebal, and plaster them
with lime; and thou shalt build an altar before the Lord thy God, an altar
of stones: thou shalt not lift up iron upon it. With perfected stones shalt
thou build the altar of the Lord thy God, and offer sacrifices thereon
before the Lord thy God. And thou shalt sacrifice consecrated victims,
and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God; and thou shalt write
upon the stones all the words of this law, distinctly and beautifully.

And Mosheh, and the priests, the Levites, spake to all Israel:
Listen and hear, O Israel: Today art thou a people before the Lord thy
God and thou shalt hearken to the Word of the Lord thy God, and do His
commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day. And Mosheh
charged the people on that day, saying: These shall stand to bless the
people on the mountain of Gerizim, when you have passed the Jordan; Shemeon
and Levi, Jehudah, Issakar, Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand
to accurse upon the mountain of Ebal; Reuben and Asher, Zebulon, Dan, and
Naphtali. And the Levites shall answer and say to all the men of Israel,
with a high voice:

Accursed be the man who shall make an image or molten (one),
an abomination before the Lord, the work of an artificer's hand, and place
it in secret. And all the people shall respond and say, Amen. Accursed
be he who contemneth his father or his mother. And all the people shall
say, Amen.

Accursed
he who changeth the boundary of his neighbour. And all the people shall
say, Amen. Accursed he who maketh the blind wander in the way. And all
the people shall say, Amen. Accursed he who perverteth the judgment of
the stranger, the orphan, or the widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Accursed he who lieth with his father's wife: he uncovereth the skirt of
his father. And all the people shall say, Amen. Accursed is he who lieth
with any beast. And all the people shall say, Amen. Accursed is he who
lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his
mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Accursed
is he who lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Accursed is he who smiteth his neighbour in secret. And all the people
shall say, Amen. Accursed is he who receiveth hire to kill the life, and
(shed the) blood of the innocent. And all the people shall say, Amen. Accursed
is he who confirmeth not the words of this law to do them. And all the
people shall say, Amen.

XXVIII. And if thou wilt indeed be obedient to the Word of
the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command
thee this day, the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the peoples
of the earth;

and
all these blessings shall come upon thee and keep with thee, if thou wilt
be obedient to the Word of the Lord thy God. Blessed (shalt) thou (be)
in the city, and blessed in the field. Blessed shall be the offspring of
thy womb, and the produce of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, the
oxen of thy herd, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket
and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and blessed in thy
going out. The Lord shall cause thy adversaries that rise up against thee
to be shattered before thee; they will come out to thee in one way, but
in seven ways shall they flee from before thee. The Lord will command blessing
upon thee in all thy storehouses, and on all that thou set test thy hand
unto, and will bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth to
thee. The Lord shall confirm thee for Himself to be a holy people, as He
hath sworn to thee, if thou wilt keep the commandments of the Lord thy
God, and walk in the ways which are right before Him. And all the nations
of the earth shall see that the Name of the Lord is invoked upon thee,
and they will be afraid of thee. And the Lord will make thee to abound
in good, in the offspring of thy womb, and of thy cattle, and in the produce
of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware to thy fathers to give
thee. The Lord will open for thee His good treasure, the heavens, to give
rain to thy land in its season, and to bless all the works of thy hand;
and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but not borrow; and the Lord will
make thee strong and not weak, and thou shalt evermore be upper and not
under, if thou wilt obey the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command
thee this day to keep and to perform. And you shall not go astray from
any of the things I command you this day, right or left, to walk after
the gods of the Gentiles to serve them.

But if thou wilt not obey the Word of the Lord thy God to
observe and do all His commandments, and His statutes which I command you
this day, all these curses shall come upon thee and cleave to thee. Accursed
shalt thou be in the city, and accursed in the field; accursed thy basket
and thy store; accursed the generation of thy womb, the produce of thy
ground, the oxen of thy herd, and the folds of thy sheep. Accursed shalt
thou be in thy coming in, and accursed in thy going out. The Lord shall
send upon thee malediction and trouble and rebuke (or menace) in all that
thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou art consumed and perish
quickly, on account of the wickedness of thy works, when thou hast forgotten
to fear Me (or, whereby thou hast forgotten My fear). The Lord shall make
the pestilence cleave to thee, until He have destroyed thee from off the
land into which thou art going to possess it.

The
Lord will smite thee with wasting, with fever, with inflammation, with
dryness, and with the sword, and with jaundice (or mildew?). And they shall
follow thee till thou art destroyed. And the heavens over thy head will
be obdurate as brass in withholding rain, and the ground under thee obstinate
as iron in producing no fruit. The Lord will give thee ashes for the rain
of thy land; and dust will come down from the heavens upon thee, until
thou be consumed.

The
Lord will deliver thee up to be broken before thy enemies; thou wilt go
out to them by one way, but by seven ways shalt thou flee before them,
and thou shalt be dispersed in all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcase
shall be cast out for food for all the fowls of the heaven, and for the
beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to drive (them) away. And
the Lord will smite thee with the ulcer of the Mizraee, with emerods, soreness,
and the dry scurvy, from which thou canst not be healed. And the Lord will
smite thee with distraction, and blindness, and with bewilderment of heart;
and thou shalt grope in the noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness; and
thou shalt not prosper in thy way, but be only oppressed and despoiled
always, and no man will be able to save.

Thou
wilt betroth a wife, but another man shall have her; thou wilt build a
house, but not dwell in it, and plant a vineyard, but have no use thereof.
Thy ox will all be killed in thy sight; but thou shalt not eat of it; thy
ass shall be taken away from thee, and not be returned to thee; thy sheep
will be delivered to thy enemies, and thou wilt have no one to rescue them;
thy sons and daughters will be given up to another people, and thy eyes
look and fail (with longing) for them all the day, and there shall be no
power in thy hand. The produce of thy land and all thy labours a people
whom thou knowest not shall devour, and thou wilt only be oppressed and
crushed all the days. And thou wilt be mad through the sight of thy eyes
which thou seest. The Lord will smite thee with an evil ulcer upon thy
knees and thy thighs, from which thou wilt not be able to be healed from
the sole of thy foot unto thy brain.

The Lord will make thee and thy king whom thou mayest have
set over thee to be captive to a people whom thou and thy fathers have
not known; and there shalt thou serve a people, worshippers of idols of
wood and stone;

and
thou wilt become a ruin, a proverb, and a history, among all nations whither
the Lord shall make thee go.

Much seed wilt thou carry out into the field, but little shalt
thou gather in, for the locust will consume it; thou wilt plant and till
vineyards, but wilt not drink the wine, nor gather in, for the worm shall
eat it; thou wilt have olive trees in all thy borders, but with the oil
thou wilt not anoint, for thy olive trees shall waste;

thou
wilt beget sons and daughters, but wilt not have them (with thee), for
they shall go into captivity. The locust will consume all the fruitage
and the trees of thy land. The uncircumcised stranger who is among thee
will rise up high above thee, but thou shalt be brought down very low:
he shall lend to thee, but thou wilt not lend to him; he will be strong,
and thou wilt be weak. And all these curses shall come upon thee, and follow
thee, and cleave to thee till thou art consumed, because thou wast not
obedient to the Word of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and
His statutes which He hath commanded thee. And they will be upon thee for
a sign and a wonder, and upon thy children for ever; because thou wouldst
not worship before the Lord thy God with cheerfulness and comeliness of
heart for the abundance of all (His benefits): but thou shalt serve thy
enemies whom the Lord will send against thee, in hunger, thirst, nakedness,
and want of all things; and He will put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until
He hath destroyed thee. And the Lord will bring upon thee a nation from
afar, from the ends of the earth, like the flying eagle, a people whose
language thou wilt not understand, a people of mighty presence, who will
not regard the old man, nor have mercy on the infant. And he will eat up
the increase of thy cattle, and the fruitage of thy ground, until he hath
consumed thee; for he will not leave thee corn, wine, nor oil, the oxen
of thy herd, nor the sheep of thy flock, until he hath brought thee to
ruin. And he will shut thee up in all thy cities, till he hath brought
down thy high and fenced walls, wherein thou didst confide to be saved
by them throughout all thy land; and he will besiege thee in all thy cities
in all thy land which the Lord thy God did give thee. And thou wilt eat
the offspring of thy womb, the flesh of thy sons and daughters whom the
Lord thy God had given thee, in the siege and straitness with which thy
enemies shall straiten thee. The man who is gentle among you, and very
delicate, will look with an evil eye upon his brother, and upon the wife
of his covenant, and upon the remnant of his children whom he will leave;
he will not give to one of them of the flesh of his children which he shall
eat, for that nothing remaineth to him of all, in the siege and the straitness
with which thy enemies shall straiten thee in all thy cities.

She
who is tender among you, and delicate, who had not (been used to) put the
sole of her foot upon the ground under her, from delicateness and tenderness,
will look with an evil eye upon the husband of her covenant, and upon her
son and her daughter, and against her little children who have been brought
forth of her, and against her children whom she hath borne; for she will
eat them in secret, in the want of all things, in the siege and the straitness
with which thy enemies shall straiten thee in thy cities: if thou wilt
not observe to perform all the words of this law which are written in this
book, to reverence this glorious and fearful Name, THE LORD THY GOD. And
the Lord will make thy plagues to be manifest (distinguished), and the
plagues of thy children) great plagues and continuous, afflictions evil
and abiding. And He will lay upon thee all the strokes of Mizraim of which
thou wast afraid, and they shall cleave to thee. All the diseases also
and all the plagues that are not written in the book of this law, will
the Lord lay upon thee till He hath destroyed thee. And you, who had been
as the stars of heaven for multitude, will be left a small people, because
you would not be obedient to the Word of the Lord your God. And as the
Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so will the
Lord rejoice over you to destroy and consume you, and to carry you away
from off the land which you are entering to possess it. And the Lord will
scatter thee among all nations unto the ends of the earth; and thou shalt
there serve peoples who worship idols of wood and stone, which neither
thou nor thy fathers have known. But among those nations thou wilt have
no repose, nor will the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord will give
thee there a timorous heart, darkness of eyes, and feebleness of mind;
and thou wilt hold thy life in suspense, and be afraid by night and day,
for thou wilt be never sure of thy life. In the morning thou wilt say,
O that it were evening I but in the evening thou wilt say, O that it were
morning! from the fearfulness of thy heart with which thou wilt fear, and
the sight of thy eyes which thou shalt see. And the Lord will cause thee
to return to Mizraim, in ships, by the way of which I spake with thee,
thou shalt see it no more: and there shall you be offered for sale for
bondmen and bondwomen, but none shall buy.

These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded
Mosheh to ratify with the children of Israel in the land of Moab; besides
the covenant which He ratified with them at Horeb.

XXIX. And Mosheh called unto all Israel, and said to them:
You have seen all that the Lord wrought before your eyes in the land of
Mizraim on Pharoh, and all his servants, and on all his land; the great
temptations, the signs and grand portents which thy eyes beheld; yet the
Lord hath not given you a heart to understand, nor eyes to discern, nor
ears to hear, unto this day. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness;
your raiment hath not become old upon you, and thy shoes have not worn
away from off thy feet; you have not eaten bread, nor drunk wine, either
new or old, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

And you came to this place; and Sihon the king of Heshbon
and Og the king of Mathnan came out to meet us, to wage battle; and we
smote them, and subdued their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the
tribe of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Menasheh. Keep ye the words
of this covenant, and perform them, that you may prosper in all that you
do.

SECTION LI.

NITSTSABIM

YOU stand this day an of you before the Lord your God, the
princes of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, every man of Israel;
your children, your wives, and thy sojourner who is within thy camp, from
the hewer of thy wood to the filler of thy water; to enter into the covenant
of the Lord thy God, and into His oath which the Lord thy God doth ratify
with thee this day, that He may establish thee this day to be a people
before Him, and that He may be a God unto thee, as He promised thee, and
as He sware unto Abraham, and to Izhak, and to Jakob.

And I ratify this covenant and oath not with you only, but
with him who is standing here with us this day: before the Lord our God,
and with him also who is not here with us this day. For you know how we
dwelt in the land of Mizraim, and how we came through the midst of the
nations by whom we have passed. And you have seen their abominations, and
their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, which (were found) among
them; lest there should be among you a man, woman, family, or tribe whose
heart is turned away this day from the fear of the Lord our God, to go
after the worship of these Gentiles; lest there should be with you a man
who imagineth wickedness or pride, that, when he heareth the words of this
oath, he should reckon in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though
I go on in the imagination of my heart to multiply sins of ignorance
with (sin of) presumption. The Lord will not absolve him, but now will
the anger and indignation of the Lord break forth against that man, and
ail the curses which are written in this book will cleave to him, and his
name will be blotted out from under the heavens. And the Lord will separate
him from all the tribes of Israel unto evil, according to all the curses
of the covenant which are written in the book of this law. And the generation
that cometh after, and your children who will arise after you, and the
son of the Gentiles who may come from a land afar off, when they see the
plagues of that land, and the afflictions with which the Lord will afflict
it,

the
whole land, brimstone and salt and burning, with no sowing, or growth,
or any herbage springing up therein, even as the overthrow of Sedom and
Amorah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and indignation,

even
all the nations will say, Why did the Lord thus to this land ? What caused
the fury of this wrath? Then shall they say, Because they have forsaken
the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He ratified with
them when He brought them out of the land of Mizraim. For they went and
served the idols of the Gentiles, and worshipped fearful things which they
knew not, and which could do them no good. And the anger of the Lord waxed
strong against this land to bring upon it all the curses that are written
in this book. And the Lord cast them away from off their land in anger,
indignation, and great violence, and drave them captive into another land
as at this day. The things which are secret are before the Lord our God;
and those which are revealed are ours, and our children's for ever, that
we may do all the words of this law.

XXX. And it will be that when all these words of blessings
or of maledictions which I have set before thee have come upon thee, and
thou turn unto thy heart among all the nations whither the Lord thy God
will have led thee captive, and return to the fear of the Lord thy God,
and obey His Word, according to all that I command thee this day, thou
and thy children, with all thy heart and all thy soul, that the Lord thy
God will turn thy captivity, and have mercy upon thee, and will return,
and gather thee from all the nations among which the Lord thy God hath
dispersed thee. If any of thy dispersed be (scattered) unto the ends of
the heavens, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and lead thee.

And
the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers did inherit,
and thou shalt possess it: and he will do thee good, and multiply thee
above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will take away the foolishness
of thy heart, and the foolishness of thy children's heart, to love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul, that thou mayest live.And
the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thy enemies and upon them
who hated and persecuted thee; but thou shalt return and be obedient to
the Word of the Lord, and do all the commandments which I command thee
this day.

And the Lord thy God will make thee to abound in all the works
of thy hand, the offspring of thy womb, the increase of thy cattle, and
the produce of thy land, unto good; for the Lord will return to rejoice
over thee for good, as He rejoiced over thy fathers; when thou shalt be
obedient to the Word of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and
statutes which are written in the book of this law, if thou return unto
the fear of the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul.

For this commandment which I command thee this day is not
apart from thee, nor is it far away. It is not in the heavens, that thou
shouldst say, Who shall ascend for us into heaven, that he may bring it
to us, that we may hear and do it?

nor
is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst. say, Who will go over for us
beyond the sea, and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it ? For the
word is very nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest
do it.

Behold, I have set before thee this day life and good, and
death and evil;

for
I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in the ways that
are right in His presence, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and
judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply, and the Lord God may bless
thee in the land into which thou art going, to possess it. But if thy heart
be averse, and thou wilt not obey, but wilt go astray, and worship the
idols of the Gentiles, and serve them, I have shown you this day that perishing
you shall perish. You will not prolong your days upon the land whither
thou passest over Jordan to enter in and possess it. I call heaven and
earth to attest in you this day that I have set before thee life and death,
blessings and curses: but choose for life, that thou mayest live, thou
and thy children, to love the Lord thy God, to be obedient to His word,
and to keep close unto His fear, for He is thy life, and the prolonged
of thy days, to abide upon the land which the Lord sware to thy fathers,
to Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, to give unto them.

SECTION LII.

VAIYELECH

XXXI.
AND Mosheh went and spake these words with all Israel.

And
he said to them, I am the son of a hundred and twenty years this day. I
am no more able to go out and to come in; and the Lord hath said to me,
Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. The Lord thy God, He goeth over before
thee; He will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt inherit
them. Jehoshua, he goeth over before thee, as the Lord hath said.

And
the Lord will do to them as He did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites,
and to the lands of them whom He destroyed. The Lord will deliver them
up, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments that I have
commanded you. Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be broken before
them; for the Word of the Lord thy God will be the leader before thee,
He will not forsake thee, nor be far off from thee.

And Mosheh called Jehoshua, and said to him before the eyes
of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage; for thou art to go in with
this people to the land which the Lord hath sworn to their fathers to give
it to them, and thou shalt cause them to inherit. But the Lord, He is the
leader before thee; His Word shall be thy helper, for He will not forsake
thee, nor be far from thee; fear not, nor be dismayed.

And Mosheh wrote this law, and gave it to the priests, the
sons of Levi, who bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and to all
the elders of Israel.

And
Mosheh commanded them, saying: At the end of seven years, at the time of
the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel cometh
to appear before the Lord thy God, in the place that He will choose, thou
shalt read this law before all Israel, and make them hear. Gather the people
together, the men, the women, and children, and thy sojourners who are
in thy cities, that they may hear, and learn, and fear before the Lord
your God, and observe and perform all the words of this law, and that their
children who have not known may hear and learn to fear before the Lord
all the days that you abide upon the land to which you pass over the Jordan
to possess it.

And the Lord said to Mosheh, Behold, the days are drawing
near for thee to die: call Jehoshua, and let him stand in the tabernacle
of ordinance, and I will give him commandment. And Mosheh and Jehoshua
went and stood in the tabernacle of ordinance. And the Lord was revealed
at the tabernacle in the pillar of the cloud, and the pillar of the cloud
stood over the door of the tabernacle.

And
the Lord said to Mosheh, Behold, thou art to sleep with thy fathers; and
this people will rise up and go astray after the idols of the peoples of
the land among whom they are going, and will forsake My fear, and remove
(or change) from My covenant which I have made with them. And my anger
will be kindled against them at that time, and I will drive them afar off,
and remove My Shekinah from them to consume them, and many evils and troubles
shall befall them. And they will say in that day, Is it not because the
Shekinah of my God is not among me, that these evils have befallen me?
But I will remove My Shekinah from them at that time on account of the
evils they had done; for they will have turned away after the idols of
the nations.

And now, write for you this hymn, and teach it to the children
of Israel; put it upon their lips, that this hymn may be a witness for
Me against the children of Israel. For when they will have entered into
the land which I promised to their fathers, (a land) producing milk and
honey, and they have eaten and been satisfied, and have become luxurious,
they will turn away after the idols of the nations, and serve them, and
provoke to anger before Me, and change from My covenant. And when many
evils and troubles have fallen on them, this song shall answer against
them, for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of their children, because
their imagination which they will do is manifest before Me this day, while
(as yet) I have not brought them into the land which I have promised.

And Mosheh wrote this hymn on that day, and taught it to the
children of Israel. And he commanded Jehoshua bar Nun, and said, Be strong,
and of good courage; for thou shalt bring the sons of Israel into the land
which I have promised to them, and His Word shall be thy helper. And it
was, when Mosheh had finished to write the words of this law upon a book
until they were completed,

that
Mosheh commanded the Levites who bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord,
saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the Ark of
the Covenant of the Lord, and it shall be there for a witness against thee.
For I know thy rebelliousness, and the stiffness of thy neck: behold, while
I am alive with you this day, you have rebelled against the Lord; but (how
much) also after that I am dead? Gather to me all the elders of your tribes,
and your officers, and I will speak these words before you, and will call
the heavens and earth to witness:

for
I know that after I am dead you will corrupt yourselves, and decline from
the way which I have commanded you, and that evil will befall you at the
end of the days; for you will do evil before the Lord to provoke Him to
anger by the works of your hands. And Mosheh spake before all the congregation
of Israel the words of this hymn, until he had finished it.

SECTION LIII.

HAAZINU

XXXII. LISTEN, ye heavens, and I will speak ; give ear, O
earth, to the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall be soft as rain; let
it be received as the dew, and my word be as the breath of the rain that
breathes upon the grass, and as the showers of the latter rain upon the
herbage. For in the Name of the Lord do I invoke: Ascribe ye greatness
unto our God; the Mighty One whose works are perfect; for all His ways
are justice; a faithful God from whom no iniquity proceedeth, just and
true is He.

They have corrupted themselves, and not Him; children who
worship idols, a generation that changeth its work, and maketh it another.
Behold, render you this before the Lord, ye people who have received the
law, but have not become wise ? Is He not thy Father, and thou art His
who made thee and bought thee?

Remember
the days of old, consider the years of generation and generation; ask thy
fathers, and they will show thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee.
For the Lord's portion is His people, Jakob is the lot of His inheritance.
He satisfied their wants in the land of the wilderness, in the dry place
where there was no water; He placed them round about His Shekinah; He taught
them the words of His law; He kept them as the apple of His eye. As the
eagle which hasteneth to his: nest, and spreadeth himself over his young
ones, stretching out his wings, taketh them, upbeareth them with the strength
of his pinions, so did the Lord alone prepare them to dwell in the world
which He will renew (set right), while the worship of idols shall not be
established before Him. He made them to dwell in the strong places of the
earth, to eat the spoil of their enemies: He gave them the spoil of the
rulers of cities, and the wealth of them who dwelt in strong defences.

He
gave them the spoil of their kings and sultans, with the riches of their
princes, and the strength of the people of their lands, their possessions,
the booty of their hosts and camps, and the blood of their heroes was poured
out like water.

But Israel waxed fat and kicked, he prospered, grew strong
and got rich, and forgot the worship of Eloha who made him, and provoked
the Almighty who redeemed him. They provoked Him by the worship of idols,
by abominations they made Him angry. They sacrificed to demons in whom
there is no help, {nothing that is needed,) and fearful things that they
had not known, new (gods) that were lately made, with which your fathers
had no dealings; of the Awful One and the Omnipotent who created thee,
thou art forgetful; thou hast forsaken the worship of Eloha who made thee.

And it was seen before the Lord, and His anger was kindled
by the provocation of His sons and daughters before Him. And He said: I
will take away (take up) My Shekinah from among them; what will be their
latter end is manifest to Me; for they are a perverse generation, children
in whom is no faith.

They
have moved Me to jealousy by that which is not worshipful, they have angered
Me by their idolatries; and I will make them jealous by what hath not been
a people, by a foolish nation will I provoke them. For a burning, strong
as fire, shall go forth before Me in fury consuming unto the lowest hell,
to make an end of the earth and its produce, and to destroy the mountains
to the end;

and
I will multiply calamities upon them, My plagues will I send forth among
them; they shall be swollen with hunger, and be eaten by the fowl, and
be vexed with evil spirits; and the teeth of wild beasts will I appoint
among them with the venom of serpents that crawl in the dust. Without will
the sword devour, and within the chambers be the slaughter-work of death,
the youths and the maidens, the sucklings with the aged. I said I would
make My anger to remain upon them and consume them; I will abolish their
memorial from (among) the children of men: only that the wrath of the enemy
would be condensed, and the adversary make himself great, and would say:
Our hand hath prevailed, and all this is not from the Lord. For they are
a people that letteth counsel go, and there is no understanding in them.
O that they were wise, that they had understanding in this, and would consider
what will be in their end! How would one Pursue a thousand, and two put
ten thousand to flight, unless the Mighty One had delivered them up, and
the Lord had requited them!

For their strength is not as our Strength, and our enemies
are the judges.

For
as the punishment of the people of Sedom will their punishment be, and
their stroke like (that) of the people of Amorah; their plagues will be
evil as the heads of serpents, and the retribution of their works like
their venom. As the poison of dragons is the cup of their punishment, and
as the heads of the cruel basilisks. Are not all their works manifest before
Me, laid up in My treasures against the day of judgment? Their punishment
is before Me, and I will repay; in the time of their dispersion from their
land; for the day of their ruin draweth near, and that which is prepared
for them maketh haste.

For the Lord shall decide the judgment of His people, and
the avengement of His righteous servants shall be avenged; for it is seen
before Him, that in the time when the stroke of their enemies would prevail
against them, they will be wavering (as those who) are forsaken. And He
will say: Where are their idols, the mighty things in which they had trusted,
which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drink the wine of their
libations? Let them now rise up and help you, let them be a shield over
you. See, now, that I, even I, am He, and there is no God beside Me. I
kill and make alive, I wound but also heal, and there is none who can deliver
out of My hand. For I have prepared in the heavens the abode of My Shekinah,
and have said, I live for evermore. When My sword is revealed like the
sight of twofold lightning from one end of the heavens to another, and
My hand taketh hold on judgment, I will render vengeance on My enemies,
and My adversaries will I repay; I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
and My sword shall slay the peoples, that by the blood of the slain, and
the captives, I may take the crowns from the head of the foe and the enemy.

Give praise, ye Gentiles, with His people, because the avengement
of His righteous servants will have been made; for He will bring retribution
on them who hate Him, and will show mercy unto His land and His people.

And Mosheh came and spake all the words of this hymn before
the people, he and Jehoshua bar Nun. And Mosheh concluded to speak all
these words with all Israel, and said to them, Set your heart upon all
the words that I have witnessed to you this day, that you may instruct
your children to observe and perform all the words of this law. For the
word is not (given) in vain to you; it is your life, and by this word will
you prolong your days upon the land which you pass over Jordan to inherit.

And the Lord spake with Mosheh the same day, saying: Go up
to this mountain of Abaraee, the mountain of Nebo, which is in the land
of Moab, over against Jericho, and see the land of Kenaan which I have
given to the sons of Israel for possession; and, dying on the mountain
to which thou goest up thou shalt be gathered to thy people, as Aharon
thy brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people; because
thou wast perverse with My Word in the midst of the children of Israel,
at the Waters of Contradiction, at Rekem, in the desert of Zin, and because
thou didst not sanctify Me among the children of Israel. For, though thou
mayest see the land, yet from thence thou shalt not go in unto the land
which I have given to the children of Israel.

XXXIII. And this is the benediction wherewith Mosheh, the
prophet of the Lord, blessed the children of Israel before his death; and
he said:

The Lord was revealed from Sinai, and the brightness of His
glory appeared to us from Seir. He was revealed in His power upon the mountain
of Pharan, and with Him were ten thousand saints; He gave us, written with
His own right hand, the law from the midst of the fire.

He loved the tribes, all the holy ones of the house of Israel;
with power He led them out of Mizraim, and they were conducted under Thy
Cloud, they journeyed by Thy Word.

Mosheh gave to us the law and delivered it an inheritance
to the congregation of Jakob. And he was the king in Israel, when the heads
of the people were gathered with the tribes of Israel.

Let
Reuben live in life eternal, and not die the second death; and let his
children receive their inheritance according to their numbers.

And of Jehudah he said this: Hear, O Lord, the prayer of Jehudah
when he goeth forth to battle, and let him return to his people in peace;
let his hands do vengeance upon his enemies, and be Thou to him a help
against his foes.

And of Levi he said: With perfections and lights, clothe Thou
the man who is found holy before Thee whom Thou didst try in the temptation,
and he was upright, and whom Thou didst prove at the Waters of Contention,
and he was faithful. Who, when they had sinned, had no mercy in the judgment
upon his father or his mother, and no respect to his brother or his children;
for they have kept the charge of Thy word, and Thy covenant have they not
altered.

These
are worthy to teach Thy judgments unto Jakob, and Thy law unto Israel.
They shall set the sweet incense before Thee, and the full free will offerings
upon Thy altar. Bless, Lord, his substance, and the oblation of his hands
receive Thou with favour; break the loins of his enemies and of his adversaries,
that they may not arise.

Of Benjamin he said: The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in
safety by Him: the shield will be over him all the days, and the Shekinah
will dwell in his land.

And of Joseph he said: Blessed be his land from before the
Lord; let it make fruit by the dew of the heavens from above, and from
the fountain springs, and the depths which flow from the abysses of the
earth beneath, let it make fruit and produce which the sun causeth to grow;
let it make fruit from the beginning of month after month; and first fruits
from the mountain tops, and goodly things from the unfailing hills, with
the good of the earth and its fulness, and the favour of Him Those glory
is in the heavens, and who was revealed unto Mosheh at the Bush: let all
these come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the man who was separated
from his brethren. The greatness of his children will be his beauty, and
the mighty works wrought for him from before the Omnipotent and the Most
High, by whose strength he will slay nations together unto the ends of
the earth; and these are the myriads of the house of Ephraim, and these
are the thousands of the house of Menasheh.

And unto Zebulon he said: Rejoice, Zebulon, when thou goest
out to war against thy adversaries, and thou, Issakar, when thou goest
to compute the time of the festivals in Jerusalem. They shall assemble
the tribes of Israel at the mountain of the sanctuary, to offer there the
holy sacrifices with free will; for they will eat the victims of the Gentiles,
and the treasures hidden in the sand shall be disclosed for them.

And of Gad he said: Blessed is He who enlargeth Gad. He dwelleth
as a lioness; he will kill sultans with kings: and he shall receive his
own at the beginning: for there, in his inheritance, Mosheh the scribe-prince
of Israel is (to be) buried; he who came out and went in at the head of
the people, who hath wrought righteousness before the Lord and His judgments
with Israel.

And of Dan he said: Dan is strong as a lion's whelp; his land
is watered by the streams that flow from Mathnan.

And of Naphtali he said: Naphtali, satisfied with favour and
full of blessings from the Lord, shall inherit from the western sea, Genesar,
unto the south.

And of Asher he said: Blessed shall be Asher with the blessings
of children: let him be acceptable to his brethren, and be nourished with
the dainties of kings: strong shalt thou be as iron and brass, and as the
days of thy youth shall be thy strength.

There is no God like the God of Israel, whose Shekinah in
the skies is thy help, and whose power is in the heaven of heavens. The
habitation of Eloha is from eternity, and the world was made by His Word;
and He will drive out thy enemies from before thee, and will say, Destroy.

And Israel shall dwell securely by themselves, according to
the benediction with which Jakob their father blessed them in the land
producing corn and wine; the heavens also above them shall drop down with
dew.

Happy art thou, Israel; none is like unto thee, a people whose
salvation is from the Lord, who is the strength of thy help, and from whom
is the might of thy victory: thy enemies shall be liars unto thee, and
thou shalt tread upon the necks of their kings.

XXXIV. And Mosheh went up from the plains of Moab to the mountains
of Nebo, to the summit of the height which is over against Jericho; and
the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali,
and the land of Ephraim and Menasheh, and all the land of Jehudah to the
hinder sea, and the south, and the country of the plain of Jericho, the
city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

And the Lord said to him, This is the land which I covenanted
unto Abraham, Izhak, and Jakob, saying, To thy children will I give it;
thou hast seen it with thine eyes, but unto it thou art not to pass over.

And Mosheh the servant of the Lord died there, in the land
of Moab, by the Word of the Lord.

And He buried him in a valley (or cavity, becheltha) in the
land of Moab, over against Bethpeor : but no man knoweth his sepulchre
unto this day.

And Mosheh was a son of a hundred and twenty years when he
died: his eye had not dimmed, neither was the radiance of his face changed.

And the children of Israel wept for Mosheh in the fields of
Moab thirty days; and the days of the mourning for Mosheh were completed.

And Jehoshua bar Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom;
for Mosheh had laid his hands upon him, and the children of Israel obeyed
him, and did as the Lord had commanded (by) Mosheh.

But no prophet hath arisen in Israel like unto Mosheh, unto
whom the Lord revealed Himself face to face, in all the signs and wonders
which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Mizraim upon Pharoh,
and on all his servants, and on all his land, and all the Mighty Hand,
and all the great manifestations which Mosheh wrought in the eyes of all
Israel.